Durham Monthly Meeting of Friends met for the conduct of business on Sunday, February 16, 2025, with 15 people in attendance by Zoom.
1. Meeting Opening:
Clerk opened the meeting with a prayer by Howard Thurman.
Open unto me — light for my darkness
Open unto me — courage for my fear.
Open unto me — hope for my despair.
Open unto me — joy for my sorrow.
Open unto me — strength for my weakness.
Open unto me — wisdom for my confusion.
Open unto me — forgiveness for my sins.
Open unto me — tenderness for my toughness.
Open unto me — love for my hates.
Open unto me — Thy Self for my self.
Lord, Lord, open unto me! Amen.
2. Approval of Minutes of January 2025 – Ellen Bennett
Meeting approved the January minutes.
3. Ministry and Counsel — Renee Cote
After positive responses to retreat, the M&C proposes holding another retreat in September. This will be discussed again at a future meeting.
Brown Lethem is asking to transfer his Meeting membership to Claremont.
It was proposed that April’s monthly meeting for business be moved from the 20th, which is Easter, to the 27th.
Meeting approved moving the date of meeting for business.
4. $2000 Gift allocation — Nancy Marstaller
The Meeting received a $2,000 gift from Rachel Kerry. She expressed a desire that the money support people who are affected by the ways in which our government is no longer funding organizations, e.g., immigrants and refugees, LGBTQ+, Women’s shelters, etc. The money may be given to more than one organization.The suggestion was made that a portion of the funds go to domestic violence survivors. Several people spoke in support of giving to MEIRS today, the need being immediate. Clerk proposed giving $1,000 to MEIRS today, and return next month to discuss allocation of the remainder.
Meeting approved this proposal.
5. Trustees Report — Sarah Sprogell
Please see attached report. Gratitude was expressed for the ongoing work of Trustees.
6. Peace and Social Concerns — Ingrid Chalufour
Please see attached report. Note that while the mission of the committee is unchanged, the focus of the committee has shifted some of its attention to participating in the Portage Mapping Project in Brunswick.
The fourth Sunday book group that started last month is continuing and is a benefit to the meeting. Please notes that this is an activity that could be overseen by any group or committee.
The Social Justice Book project may be affected by the decrease in funding from the US Department of Education.
7. Finance Annual Report — Doug Bennett
Please see attached report. There are four points to keep in mind regarding Meeting finances:
- We are very good at budgeting. We spend what we say we’re going to.
- We make other expenditures, as well as receive income that are “off budget” e.g., spend money from the capital account, charity account, from the Sister City account, etc. We should try to come up with a framework for these expenses.
- Weekly contributions counted towards our operating revenue are down significantly. 73% of income came from weekly contributions and automatic deposits in 2018. That is down to 48% this year, a decline of 26%. Making up for this, not quite half of our income is coming from our investments.
- The total financial value of our Meeting is about $950,000.
- Cemeteries, which are budgeted and managed separately, are also in good financial shape.
Suggestion was made that the Meeting articulate to all the importance of weekly contributions. Start passing the plate again!
8. Makers Cafe update — Ellen Bennett. Craig Freshley
Good session last month with Nancy Marstaller, and excited about this upcoming session with Emily Bell-Hoerth. We welcome ideas! It’s all about building community. And we are all grateful.
9. Other business
An observation: Recently we’ve had visitors to the Meeting who are interested in finding out more about Durham Friends. Things are “bubbling” around us.
For discussion at the next meeting for business, Meeting member Joyce Gibson offered the following:
1. She now has time to be more engaged in the meeting, 2. is missing adult Christian education, 3. and is interested in documenting who we are as a Meeting and our Quaker history. She is asking M&C to think about how we might approach furthering our education about who we are as Quakers and would like others to work with.
Clerk ask that we close with prayers of gratitude and hope, and reread the Howard Thurman prayer.
Respectfully submitted, Ellen Bennett, Recording Clerk
