Durham Monthly Meeting of Friends met for the conduct of business on Sunday, February 18, 2024, with seven people in attendance at the Meetinghouse and five attending by Zoom. Nancy Marstaller clerked the meeting.
Meeting approved Nancy Marstaller as Clerk of this meeting for business. Meeting also approved flexibility in scheduling those who will serve as Clerk to conduct meetings.
- Meeting Opening
Clerk opened meeting with a reading from the Interim Faith and Practice, 2014, of New England Yearly Meeting.
“Friends express the importance of being patient, being willing to hear each other fully and openly. When we take into account our knowledge of one another in community, when we ask ourselves to listen deeply, to release our own individual opinion and surrender our individual will, we find profound connection with others and with the divine. We are all separate ingredients in a pot, each carrying our individual flavors, but simmering together until we create a flavorful soup. This unified creation can be a difficult but amazing process. It brings us closer to one another and to God.” – Mt. Toby Monthly Meeting, 2008
2. Approval of Minutes of January 2024 — Ellen Bennett
Meeting approved the January minutes.
3. Approval of Margaret Wentworth Memorial Minute
Margaret Wentworth’s memorial minute was read aloud. Recommendations were made to add more detail about Margaret’s life outside of Durham Meeting, including her service on the Board of Lisbon Area Christian Outreach, teaching local children, and serving as select person for Lisbon.
Meeting approved the minute with the above additions/changes.
The amended minute will be distributed to Meeting members before being sent to New England Yearly Meeting.
4. Reading of Sue Wood Memorial Minute
Clerk read the first draft of Sue Wood’s Memorial Minute. It was suggested that the minute include specific birth and death dates, note that she served as co-clerk for several years, and that Sue was very good at holding a group in prayer, possessing great depth of spirit.
5. Finance Committee — Nancy Marstaller
* 2023 End of year budget report
Summary: Operating revenue exceeded budget. Expenses were lower than budgeted, largely because the MCC position and youth minister positions were not filled. The Meeting is in good financial shape.
* 2023 Annual report
Please see attached report.
Meeting accepted the report with appreciation for the work of the committee.
6. Ministry and Counsel — Tess Hartford and Renee Cote
M&C asked for feedback regarding Leslie Manning maintaining the DFM Facebook page. It was suggested the page be maintained for special events and services notices only. Note the DFM website has a link allowing for transfer of information from the website to a variety of social media sites.
Some members lifted up the problem of using/supporting a platform built by an organization that has shown itself to be dishonest and corrupt.
Meeting discussed the support and oversight groups for Leslie’s roles as a recorded minister, as well as Meeting Care Coordinator. The sense is that there are/should be two groups: one for Leslie’s role as a recorded minister and her ministry beyond the meeting, and one for her role as MCC. The MCC search group will bring forward a proposal for creating an oversight committee.
Meeting approved the current ministry support committee take on renewed purpose for Leslie’s work as a recorded minister. The committee will report annually for Quarterly Meeting its sense of Leslie’s ministry work. Joyce Gibson agreed to join Leslie’s support committee for ministry. This was met with great appreciation from the Meeting.
7. Trustees Report — Sarah Sprogell
The Meeting was reminded that Trustees prioritized reducing moisture, evaluating supports under meeting room, painting the exterior of the addition, and weatherizing the exit doors as upcoming tasks.
Meeting approved Trustees using up to $3000, from the capital account, to purchase and install a commercial dehumidifier for the basement.
Meeting approved that the Clerk of Trustees initiate conversations with pertinent parties to bring the issue of Eileen Babcock’s bequest to resolution.
8. Peace and Social Concerns — Ingrid Chalufour
One addition to the submitted report was presented. A group met with Nat Shed, a Brunswick town counselor, to ask for assistance in bringing the renaming of the Brunswick park to honor the Wabanaki people back to the town council.
Meeting accepted the report with gratitude.
8. Library Committee Annual Report
Meeting accepted the report with gratitude.
9. Other Business
It was reported that our sister meeting in Velasco can no longer meet in their meeting room due to rotting beams. Friends from Falmouth Quarter will be headed back to Cuba in July. Between now and then, the Meeting is asked to assist Velasco Meeting in finding what can be done to ensure that their meeting space is safe and secure. Important, as well, to confer with FWCC as to the best way to be helpful.
10. Closing Worship
Clerk closed the meeting with worship and a reading from the Interim Faith and Practice.
“Spiritual discernment seems to flourish best from this contemplative, reflective, nonlinear state of mind, which is a wide, non-judgmental, almost non-attached but very alert attentiveness. Being in the Mind of Christ, however, does not mean being “spaced out,” for the analytic faculties are not suppressed; they are cushioned by a more vast mind which takes all things into account. Indeed, our analytical faculties are at least as sharp, if not sharper, in the Mind of Christ than they are at other times; the difference is that there we know that we are not just our surface mind, as we Westerners tend to assume, and the difference is that this surface mind is no longer the master, but the tool, of the more integrated person we become in the Mind of Christ.” — Bill Taber, 1985
Respectfully submitted, Ellen Bennett, Recording Clerk
