Falmouth Quarter, Business Meeting Minutes, 15 August 2026, at Durham Friends Meeting

Present: (Brunswick): Marian Dalton, Christine Holden; (Durham): Wendy Schlotterback (co-clerk), Leslie Manning, Kim Bolshaw; (Portland): Fritz Weiss (co-clerk), Mimi Marstaller (co-clerk), Ann Dodd-Collins (recorder), Paula Rossvall, Maggie Fehr, Genna Ulrich, Dorothy Grannell, Andy Grannell, Meg Klepak (currently attending High Street worship group in Belfast); (Windham): Julie Moore, Cheryl Cuddy; (Visitors): Janet Hough, Cobscook, (on zoom).

We began with a few minutes of open worship and song, “Wade In the Water”.

Mimi introduced us to today’s program, a discussion on ministry and eldering. How do we uphold the gifts in our Meeting and how do we draw them out? Marty Paxton Grundy, author of the Pendle Hill Pamphlet, “Tall Poppies”, will join us in the afternoon.

Southern Maine Meeting

Southern Maine Friends Meeting has notified the Quarter that they are no longer functioning as a Monthly Meeting and has asked the Quarter to support their transition to an appropriate form.

The Quarter is asked to appoint Dorothy Grannell and Leslie Manning to shepherd Southern Maine Friends Meeting as they make this transition. Dorothy and Leslie have already started this work.

Southern Maine is a small group that meets occasionally in member’s homes. When they receive inquiries from those who would like to attend Quaker worship, they steer them other meetings.

The Quarter has specific responsibilities to ensure all members have transferred their membership to other meetings, to ensure that any records are transferred to the Maine and New England archives, and for ensuring that the southern Maine Friends group is under the care of a Quaker Meeting. This could be either a monthly meeting or a quarterly meeting. A detail report of the necessary work is attached.

It was also noted that if there are individuals seeking Quaker worship in southern Maine and Coastal New Hampshire, might the quarter explore ways to encourage the formation of a worship group open to newcomers in the area?

We APPROVED, with gratitude, naming Dorothy Grannell and Leslie Manning as representatives to work with Southern Maine through the next steps.

Denominational endorsement for Shelley Randall

We received a minute from Durham supporting the work of Shelley Randall and requesting a minute of denominational endorsement. A report from Shelley’s clearness committee and a Minute of Endorsement are attached.

We APPROVED a denominational endorsement for Rev. Shelley Randall, with a request that she draw on the Quarter for additional support if needed.

Beacon Hill Friends House Corporation

Appoint Doug Bennett to the Beacon Hill Friends House Corporation for a second three-year term, to be retroactive as of July 1, 2026.

We APPROVED, with gratitude, Doug’s appointment to the Corporation.

Falmouth Quarter as fiscal agent for the Quaker Healing Circle

We considered a request for Falmouth Quarter to serve as the fiscal agent for the Quaker Healing Circle. This would include receiving donations and registration fees and making payments. Our treasurer supports this request. The Quarter has done this in the past, most recently for Anna Fritz’s New England tour of the performance of “An Iliad”. If it becomes a bigger task than anticipated Helen Mullin, former treasurer of Brooklyn Meeting (NYYM) has offered to assist.

The Quaker Healing Circle is a fairly new group of practitioners from across the continent, who meet monthly over Zoom and annually in person once a year. Our mission statement is: “We practice healing, with divine assistance, as a spiritual expression of love, through many modalities. We are led to create a circle of healers; open to all, supporting one another, ever enlarging the reach and strength of our healing community. In the spirit of continuing revelation, we open to the mystery of healing love that draws us ever deeper into this sacred calling.”

The Healing Circle is not clear about structure but it is clear about ministry. They need a fiscal agent until the group’s status becomes clear.

We APPROVED Falmouth Quarter being the fiscal agent for the Quaker Healing Circle for a period not to exceed two years.

Announcements:

➔ Windham Friends will be offering a coffee house to which we are invited.

➔ Durham Friends have been hosting monthly “maker cafes” to which all are invited.

➔ A day of extended worship will be held at Portland Friends Meeting on September 19, from 9 am to 2:30 pm to which all are invited.

➔ Grants from the Leadings Committee at Portland Friends are open to the quarter.

➔ Friends United Meeting needs to raise $6000 for shipping before they can plan another shipment to Caribbean Quakers. Put “Special Caribbean projects” in the memo line of your donation to FUM.

➔ Sunday, August 23, is the annual meeting at Quaker Ridge Meeting house. Worship is at 10:30 am, followed by lunch (bring items for potluck) at Hacker’s Hill and meeting for business at 1 pm.

We closed with a few moments of worship.

Following Lunch, Mimi Marstaller facilitated a conversation on eldering among Friends, informed by the pamphlet “Tall Poppies”. The author, Marty Grundy, joined us via zoom. Friends have long recognized that intentional encouragement of individuals growing into gifts of ministry is important. The meeting community’s role in supporting, guiding, and testing individuals is an essential and complicated responsibility. This role is what Friends are referring to as “eldering”. Our conversation was rich, informed by our individual experiences and informed by the experience of both Durham and Portland meetings which have been intentionally providing support to individuals. However, the community’s ability to do this lovingly and in a manner which encourages rather than discourages is hard.

Attachment #1: Clearness Committee for Rev. Shelley Randall*

June 25, 2026

Members Present: Wendy Schlotterbeck, Joyce Gibson, Shelley Randall

Topic: Addressing the question of acknowledgement by Durham of her calling to community ministry, specifically with immigrants and local police & fire departments

1. We gathered in waiting worship

2. Shelley presented the history of her calling as a CHIMe chaplain in working with:

· Transporting immigrants from Maine to Massachusetts for hearings and other meetings

· Adjusting to the differences in the cultures of the Police & Fire Departments

· How questions regularly arise about “what church” she is affiliated with

· Her stronger acceptance by immigrants and inmates of her role than “Americans” who believe in separation of church and government

3. Shelley spoke of getting rid of the “imposter syndrome” with a possible affiliation

4. Affiliation and recognition make it easier to access assistance for others, as opposed to continually defining her role.

5. Descriptions of her work include:

· Being a bridge between fire and police departments and community

· Holding space for people to discard what they are holding (fear?) in their bodies

· Creating opportunity for prayers and other blessings

· Learning from serving how their needs can be met by her ministry and others in the community

The Clearness Committee recommended recognition of Rev. Shelley Randall’s ministry affiliated with Durham Friends Meeting, and the establishment of a Support Committee.

*This Clearness Committee was called to fill the commitment Ministry & Counsel has in . . . “seeking to identify, draw out and encourage the abilities and spiritual qualities it sees in its community members.” This process is described in the Faith & Practice under the Work of Ministry & Counsel, Section II.i, Recognizing & Nurturing Gifts, Leadings & Ministry. neym.org.https://neym.org/read-approved-chapters-faith-and-practice/ministry-and-counsel.

July 19, 2026

Durham Friends Meeting

Minute of Endorsement for Reverend Shelley Randall

Shelley Randall is a member in good standing of Durham Friends Meeting of Durham, Maine. We endorse her ministry as a community chaplain and have approved a Support Committee which will meet with her once a year and be available as otherwise needed. This committee will provide accountability for her ministry by seeking clarity with Shelley about the nature and form this ministry takes. It will also assure an ongoing connection with our faith community.

Signed at the direction of Durham Monthly Meeting, July 19, 2026 Renee Cote, Acting Clerk Further endorsed by Falmouth Quarterly Meeting, (August 15, 2026) Fritz Weiss, Clerk

Attachment #2 – Process for changing the status of Southern Maine Friends Meeting

Dear Southern Maine Friends,

Leslie Manning and I have been delegated to work with you to change the status of your meeting, and are grateful to accompany you in this tender work. In order to lay the monthly meeting down and create a worship group under the care of Portland Friends there are a series of steps to follow. We will be working with you to see if this can occur by the Fall Falmouth Quarterly Meeting in October.

You have sent a list of names of active participants and their emails. This letter will be sent by email to all on the list. Below you will find the steps to follow. We assume everyone on that list is a current member of your Meeting. If you attend but have your membership elsewhere, this does not apply to you; if you are not a member, you are always welcome to consider applying to other meetings and are always welcome at any worship.

With care, Leslie Manning lesliem55@gmail.com 207-319-0342 Dorothy Grannell stemp41@gmail.com 207-233-6587

1. Create a minute to Falmouth Quarter asking to be laid down as a monthly meeting. One of you can clerk the meeting and another record. The first item of the meeting is to approve the clerks of the day. Alternatively a member of Falmouth Quarter can come and clerk and/or record the meeting, your choice. A sample minute is included at the end. [A}

2. At this meeting make a request to Portland Friends Meeting to become an approved worship group meeting for worship in homes at the call of a member of the worship group on seasonal non regular times.. Because this would be a closed group it would not be listed on Portland Friends or NEYM websites. Sample request Letter attached {B}

3. Create a list of all the known members of Southern Maine M M from your records with names and mailing- address and send that to Leslie Manning and Dorothy Grannell. Our emails are found at the end of this letter. (If a member has someone acting for them as power of attorney, that should be detailed). You may have a member or two that do not appear on the email list that was sent.

4. Since membership is held in a monthly meeting each person will have to write a letter requesting a transfer to another active monthly meeting before Southern Maine is no longer functioning as a monthly meeting. The Meeting can only be laid down once those transfers are made.

5. Individuals may choose a meeting or denomination where a previous membership was held, a meeting or denomination close to where they live in the winter or one of the following: Portland, Durham, or Dover. Although they should be separate letters the text could be the same, copies made and filled out and signed individually, (See C attached)

6. Property or Assets. If there is no property that makes this easier to change status. If there are funds you can spend them down in accordance with your wishes, reserving a portion to cover the cost of archiving your meeting history. Depending on the size and complexity of the archive, it may cost an estimated $5-600 to create two bound volumes of your records. Andy Grannell is willing to work with you to prepare these records for archiving at Maine Historical Society and New England Yearly Meeting (NEYM) archives at U Mass/Amherst.

7. Archives. Depending on whether your records are hand written or typed they can be copied and bound with a volume going to each of our repositories as mentioned above. If they are typed they can easily be scanned and digitized so that they are easily searchable. If they are a mixture of minutes, public statements, events, letters to editors etc at the very least they should be organized in sequential fashion with an index. Please contact Andy Grannell for a conversation and assistance [ 207-878-8698 or grannell90@gmail.com).

8. Non profit status. If you are incorporated as a not for profit organization in the State of Maine, please let us know. Once the meeting is fully laid down Falmouth Quarter can notify the Secretary of State that you are no longer a monthly meeting. Falmouth Quarter will also notify the yearly meeting. If you are listed as a member of FUM, FGC, FWCC , AFSC or other groups again please notify us of the groups or once you have a Falmouth Quarter Minute of laying down of the monthly meeting, one of your members could send the letter.

9. Final wishes of members. Since you will be requesting a transfer of membership and may or may not actively participate in the life of that meeting ( we hope that you will make yourselves known) it would be a good idea to let the receiving meeting know what your wishes are regarding the end of your life: memorial service at the meeting or other location, other details. This could be attached to your request for transfer or sent at a later time to that Meeting’s Ministry and Counsel. Family members should also know your wishes and have contact information on where your service should take place.

10. Final Letter. Often a meeting chooses to hold a Memorial Meeting for itself. This can be done at the fall Quarterly Meeting and recorded to be placed with the records, or the Meeting may choose to write a Legacy Letter detailing the testimonies and activities of the meeting in Southern Maine and tracing its history from when and why it was formed to the present day. Neither of these is required but just as we wish to remember family members at their passing, a letter or a service reminds us that the meeting was and had a life that was important to many.