DRAFT

Durham Monthly Meeting of Friends Minutes, April 27, 2025

Nancy Marstaller — Recording Clerk pro tem

Durham Monthly Meeting of Friends met for the conduct of business on Sunday, April 27, 2025, with six people in attendance at the Meetinghouse and two by Zoom.

1.     Meeting Opening:

              Clerk Sarah Sprogell opened the meeting with a reading from A Mystic Garden by Gunilla Norris:

Soil

                             Sphagnum moss, compost, sand, ordinary garden soil, a little lime, perhaps, or maybe nothing- all of it needs to be turned with a fork. I turn, lift, lighten, dig, and mix.

                             I want the bed to be rich and mounded. I want the soil to fill the box to the brim, to bursting. We want so much all the time while our inner ground lies inert and helpless. Being so busy, busy, busy, we are completely taken up with our urgent wants. No fork can turn the inner soil.

                             Deep within it is dark. As I work in this lettuce box I feel an ache, a longing to be turned, to be set right. Oh, that the work of our hands and the meditations of our hearts could always be one!

What you gaze on, gazes back.

What you contemplate in faithfulness, changes you into itself.

Turning and turning you’ll come around to being

open like earth in which much can grow.

2.     Meeting approved Nancy Marstaller as recording clerk for this meeting.

3.     Approval of Minutes of March 2025

        Meeting approved the March minutes.

4.     Ministry and Counsel — Renee Cote

     Renee shared their report (attached). A request for greeters has been made, as we have more visitors lately, though some worry if enough people would be willing to do this. Ingrid Chalufour volunteered to make a sign-up sheet for greeters. Also, the half-page informational sheet available in the entryway needs updating; Sarah volunteered to update that page and send it to Ministry and Counsel for review.

5. Peace and Social Concerns — Ingrid Chalufour

Ingrid shared her report (attached).

6.     A proposal has been made to review the set-up of our vestry/fellowship room.

      The Wabanaki posters have not been hung on the walls in deference to a request to review the set-up in the vestry. Comments from people attending the Makers Cafes have been that our space is welcoming and the library area inviting.

      What is important for us to have in this space? What changes to that space would say more about who we are and what we believe? What do we want to have on those walls? How could we make the space more welcoming to new people? Can we make it easier to use our bulletin boards? We ask people to think about this and will discuss it more at our next monthly meeting.

7.     Trustees — Sarah Sprogell

        Sarah shared her report (attached). Trustees are aware that our large sign by the road needs replacement and will be looking to get this done. They appreciate any recommendations.

8.     Travel Letter for Martha Sheldon —

        Martha will be traveling to Ramallah in July with Jane and Max Carter and others, and she requests a travel letter from the Meeting. Martha taught at the Ramallah Friends School in the 1980s. Their group plans to be a presence of support and observation, doing labor in surrounding olive groves and visiting the school and Friends in the area. Sarah will write the letter and get it to Martha.

9.     Leslie Manning’s Meeting Care Coordinator report is available on the website.

Leslie noted she is now scheduling message bringers for June and July and asks that anyone who has a message rising please contact her.

9.     Closing

Sarah closed the Meeting with another reading from A Mystic Garden by Gunilla Norris:

Breathed by God clay begins to live.

See how there is no part of creation that is found unworthy of being.

Respectfully submitted, Nancy Marstaller, Recording Clerk pro tem

Attachments:

Ministry and Counsel report

Peace and Social Concerns report

Trustees report

Meeting Care Coordinator report