Durham Monthly Meeting Minutes, June 21, 2020

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            Durham Monthly Meeting of Friends convened via Zoom for the conduct of business on Sunday, June 21, 2020, with 18 people present.  Martha Hinshaw Sheldon, co-clerk, opened the meeting reading two Advices from the New England Yearly Meeting Faith and Practice.

1. The May minutes were approved.

2. Finance Committee: Kathariine (Kitsie) Hildebrandt reported that individual monthly financial giving has decreased and we are encouraged to increase our financial support of the meeting during these months when we cannot physically be present at the meetinghouse.

            The committee presented a revised recommendation for the use of the Charity Fund.  This following recommendation was approved:

           ” The Charity Account is to be administered, after careful consideration of each unique situation, for both Charitable Requests and Supported Ministry (Leadings) purposes.

            “In terms of Supported Ministry (Leadings), coming from members or regular attenders, the request, with an amount included, will be brought to a standing Meeting committee first to prayerfully consider said request for funds. If the Meeting committee finds clearness in the request, the committee can then bring the request to Monthly Meeting, with the request added to an agenda that is distributed ahead of the Monthly Meeting.

           “In considering proposals to support a ministry, we recommend the following criteria:

  • Alignment of the ministry with the faith and practice of Friends, including the Testimonies.
  • The character and integrity of the person or group seeking support.
  • The merit and validity of the request.   In other words, does this ministry help to deepen and promote the life, not only of the individual or group, but the life of the whole Meeting as well?

            “In terms of Charitable Requests, a request, with an amount included, will be brought to a standing meeting committee first to prayerfully consider said request for funds. If the meeting committee finds clearness in the request, the committee can then bring the request to monthly meeting, with the request added to an agenda, distributed ahead of the monthly meeting.

            “In the case of a time sensitive situation, a request for financial assistance, with an amount included, can be brought to the Monthly Meeting by a Meeting Committee, where it would be tended, weighed and prayerfully decided at the next Monthly Meeting. In this case the request would be communicated to the Meeting Community ahead of time.   

            “In the case of a true emergency, a request, with an amount included, can be brought to the clerk of the Meeting, along with the clerk of Ministry and Counsel and the clerk of Finance, who can then direct the allocation of funds from the Charity Account, and report to the next Monthly Meeting.

            “The Charity Account, in general, will not be a source of funding for Quaker organizations and causes such as FCNL, AFSC, QUNO, NEYM, Tedford Housing, or LACO, as these are included in the annual budget as contributions.

            “Requests for funds will generally be no greater than $1,000.00.”

3. Ministry and Counsel: Martha Sheldon reported for the committee. Upcoming meeting speakers were announced.

            Kim Bolshaw and Tess Hartfurd are facilitating a small group of people meeting for worship in the parking lot on Sunday mornings using a media connection to the Zoom worship.  Others may decide to gather in small groups in homes in safe distances sharing technology to connect to the Zoom worship.  They are consulting with professionals to determine a viable blended form of worship to use in the future.

            A virtual prayer group sponsored by Ministry and Counsel met on June 11, and they plan to meet each Monday from 9:00 to 9:30.

            Sukie Rice delights in receiving notes from Friends/friends but requests that only one visitor visit per day.  Call ahead to schedule a visit, or write a note.  She is happy to have a green burial; For more information, contact Martha who recorded part of Sukie’s presentation on green burial a few weeks ago.

            Memorial minutes were presented for Phyllis Wetherell and Edith Whitehead.  These minutes are attached. Much appreciation was expressed for the lives of these members.

            Martha read a letter from Ingrid Chalufour requesting membership with Durham Friends Meeting. The application was received with great pleasure, and Sarah Sprogell, Tess Hartford and Joyce Gibson were appointed as a Committee to visit with Ingrid and report back to the next meeting for business.

4. Peace and Social Concerns Committee: Ingrid Chalufour reported that Brown Lethem, Cindy Wood and Ingrid Chalufour met at Cindy’s house on June 11.  Cush Anthony consulted with us by email and phone. Their Meeting began with a reading of the NEYM statement A Time for Repentance and Transformation, which is on the Durham Meeting website. Two sentences resonated for them. First, “We recognize that our silence in this moment would be collusion with violence.” And, “We…are called with Divine guidance to do the work to understand that complicity and to end it.” They agreed that they would make plans to work, with meeting, to deepen our understanding of white privilege, institutionalized racism, and to examine the concept of being an antiracist.

            They discussed resurrecting the plan to write a letter-to-the-editor, using the ideas in the NEYM statement as a basis for the message. Meeting clerks have supported the idea so they plan to have a letter for review and approval at the July Monthly Meeting. It will be sent out to everyone by email a week ahead of time so they can have a review and edit process before monthly meeting.   

            Their next discussion was about planning and leading a Meeting-wide book reading. Ingrid shared a review of a book titled, How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi. Other books and articles were suggested. In particular they discussed The Case for Reparations by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Atlantic Monthly, June 2014). This article is on the Meeting website now. They decided that they would offer a few suggestions to participants, but the discussion would be guided by a common set of questions examining white privilege and institutional racism.  Liana Thompson-Knight has volunteered to join them in the planning of this activity. 

            Several expressed interest in a meeting-wide book reading on the subject. We thanked the committee for their report.

5. Christian Education and Youth Minister:   The Plant Salewas a great success- thanks to everyone who contributed plants, stopped by to water, and/or purchase plants. Special thanks to Kim Bolshaw for all her help! We made $650.

            On Wednesdays, they continue to hold “Storytime” between 6:30-7:15 pm using the Durham Meeting zoom login. Log in any time after 6:30 pm on Wednesdays to check in, and chat. The activities begin at 6:45. This past month they have played charades and trivia in addition to reading stories, one of which was Planting the trees of Kenya: the Story of Wangari Maatnai.

            Children and Youth Sunday took place on Sunday June 7. 13 Durham kids were invited to the meeting house horse shed to participate in a scavenger hunt created by Amy Kustra and Julien Barksdale. Prizes and seeds were donated by Dorothy Curtis and Kim Bolshaw. Wendy Schlotterbeck made prayer flags for each, and each child/youth was invited to select 2 flowers or plants to take home. A special photo tribute of Durham children/youth was played and 2020 graduates were honored. The special gifts were delivered to children who were unable to participate at the Meeting House yard.

            The faith journey sharing was postponed until fall after discussion at the clerk’s meeting on June 18,

.           The following Durham Friends graduated this spring. Congratulations to the following amazing young adults:

  • Emily Carr- Harpswell Coastal Academy
  • Cleo Carrera- Pratt Institute
  • Joey Reed- University of Maine at Orono
  • Libbey Masse´- UMO
  • Acadia Weinberg-Wellesley College
  • Emma Nagler- Clark University

             Wendy was a Resource Person (RP) for the NEYM Young Friends retreat June 12-14

            Upcoming opportunities were listed: Friends Canp, Friends General Conference gathering, New England Yearly Meeting sessions, and a game night for the entire Durham Meeting community for which  Wendy is asking for fun trivia questions from everyone.  See details in the Newsletter. 

6. Trustees:  Donna Hutchins reported for the committee. Daniel Henton has replaced front door knobs and locks at the meetinghouse and parsonage, and replaced the porch light at the parsonage.   C & Z plumbing fixed a water issue at the parsonage. Chimneys at both the parsonage and meetinghouse have been checked and cleaned.

            Andy Higgins cleared tree branches and fixed the gate at the Jones Cemetery. Andy will be moving the sand pile located in the old section of Lunt Cemetery.

            The green burial area at Lunt Cemetery has been gridded and staked, work done by Michael Lord, charging a minimal fee for the work and supply costs: $300.

            We had a lengthly discussion regarding Lunt Cemetery needs: landscaping:a section torn up by vandals, entrance pillar damage replacement, and a fence with gates. Our concerns were registered by the committee members and will have recommendations at the July monthly meeting.  Kristna Evans volunteered to meet with the Trustees with her concerns.

            Appreciation was expressed for the fine job of painting the meeting room by Tess Hartford. 

7.Meeting Care Coordinator Search Committee is made up of representatives from committees with which that the Meeting Care Coordinator would be working. Committee members are: Martha Sheldon (Ministry and Council), Dorothy Curtis (Christian Education) Ingrid Chalufour (Peace and Social Concerns), and Liana Thompson Knight (Communication).

            On May 21 Martha received a strong application for the Meeting Care Coordinator position from a Quaker who lives in Michigan and who is planning to move to Maine.   After reviewing the application the committee decided to meet and consider how (or if) to proceed. Martha, Ingrid, and Dorothy met on May 26 and decided to proceed and interview her. This decision was based on two facts. First, Martha expressed great need for someone working on ministry and council needs with her. M&C tasks are greater than most Quaker meetings due to being semi programmed without a pastor. Second, the applicant is an active Quaker who appears to have the knowledge and skills that would greatly benefit Durham Friends. On June 5 the committee interviewed the applicant via Zoom. Soon thereafter two references were called. Both the interview and the references reinforced our feeling that she would serve to strengthen the Durham Meeting in all the ways that the job asks.

            The applicant considers this job a one-year experiment, as it is a new position and the specifics are yet to be defined.  The meeting expressed a positive response and requested a Zoom interview with interested members/attenders prior to the July monthly meeting at which time we would make a decision.  Additional fund raising will be needed to support the position because that line item was removed from the budget; a suggested special plea would be in order. 

8.Communication Committee:  Thank you Liana Knight for becoming the interim Newsletter Editor.

            Martha Sheldon closed the meeting with quiet reflection; “go in peace; the Light in us is from the Light of the Spirit. 

            Dorothy Hinshaw, Recording Secretary

Planning for an Active Prayer Group – June 18 at 8:30am

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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

Join the Poor People’s Campaign Now and on June 20!

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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

“Holy Silence and Worldly Silence,” By Doug Bennett

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Message given at Durham Friends Meeting, June 14, 2020

People of my generation (and I use that term very loosely to include many of us) may not know much of the Bible.  Unlike my parents I didn’t grow up memorizing Bible verses.  But most of us in my generation know the first eight verses of the third chapter of the 21st book in the Hebrew Testament.  That’s because some guy just took those lines (from the King James Version), set them to music, and recorded it as a song.  That was Pete Seeger; he recorded it in 1962.  When the Byrds released a version of it in 1965 as “Turn, Turn, Turn,” it went to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.  And the song still has the distinction of being the song that reached #1 with the oldest lyrics.

Here are those first eight verses of the third chapter of the 21st book of the Bible, the book of Ecclesiastes, a book that by legend, was written by King Solomon:

3 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

It’s a song with a strong connection to an era of peace protests and civil rights demonstration, an era of insistence on doing right.  It was a call to peace and justice – and it still is. 

“A time to keep silence and a time to speak;” “a time of war and a time of peace.”  For many of us, the song came to mean that now, right now, was a time for peace and a time for speaking out.  More than a half century later, here we are again. 

How can that be?  Have we learned nothing? Have we achieved nothing?

For Quakers, for worshipping communities like us, silence is at the core of our spiritual practice.  We gather in silence for worship.  Sometimes we stay in silence for the whole of our worship time.  But this doesn’t seem like a time for silence; it seems like a time for speaking.  And more than that, it seems like a time for doing. 

I’ve been thinking that there are two kinds of silence, and they are quite different. 

One kind we might call holy silence.  We quiet ourselves to hear God.  We quiet ourselves to give attention to what God is asking of us. 

The other kind we might call worldly silence.  We’re silent because we’re lost or confused; we don’t know what to say.  We’re silent because we’re biting our tongues.  We know what to say but we aren’t strong enough or brave enough to say it. 

Worldly silence is a stay-on-the-sidelines kind of silence.  Holy silence is a getting-ready kind of silence, a getting ready to speak and a getting ready to act kind of silence. 

What is it we have to say?  It’s not good enough to say we’re against racial inequity; it’s not good enough to say we that Black Lives Matter.  We Quakers (not us, but those who came before us) were early to speak up for the abolition of slavery.  But we were largely unprepared for what would come after slavery.  We didn’t welcome African-Americans into Friends Meetings or into Quaker schools or colleges.  Fit for Freedom But Not for Friendship is the quite telling title of the book that Donna McDaniel and Vanessa Julye wrote about that.  We were silent, tongue-tied maybe, or worse. 

Many Quakers supported the civil rights advocacy of the 1960s that led to the civil rights act of 1964 and the voting rights act of 1965.  But in our lifetimes, we’ve seen those weren’t enough.  And worse, we’ve seen those steps forward rolled back, gutted.  We may not have wanted that roll-back, but we didn’t speak manage to speak out strongly enough to stop that rollback

401 years since the first people were brought to these shores in chains, enslaved; 244 years since we proclaimed all people created equal; 155 years since the end of Civil War and the end of state-authorized slavery.  We still have deep and persisting racial injustice in this country. 

We see police violence.  And nothing done about it.

We see persisting gaps in achievement in our schools.

We see school expulsions and suspensions disproportionately exercised against people of color.

We see the right to vote denied to African Americans.  Polling places closed.  Voter registrations cancelled.  Gerrymandering.  Voting machines sabotaged.

We see prisons disproportionately filled with people of color.

We see neighborhoods segregated by race. 

We see deep and persisting inequalities in employment.  In income.  In wealth.

In every conceivable way we see unjustified – unjustifiable – gaps between the life experience of people simply on the basis of race and color. 

We see worse health care and worse health outcomes for people of color.  COVID 19 is hitting people of color particularly hard.  I read recently that in the last decade 1200 scientific papers were published calling attention to racial disparities in health and medical care.  Noticing isn’t enough.  Talking about it isn’t enough. 

Here in Maine we can stand a little to one side of all this – the whitest state in the union (or is it Vermont?).  But is that anything that excuses our silence, really?

In every realm of life, we see injustice.  If we don’t see it, shame on us. If we don’t speak out about it, shame on us.  If we don’t try to make it right, shame on us.

Today, we are called to see that we make good on the promise of equality.  We are called to speak out – to insist that we truly be a country that accords liberty and justice to all,

There are political currents that are working on this:  movements, organizations, campaigns. Black Lives Matter, the Poor People’s Campaign, the American Civil Liberties Union, many others.  These all need our support and we should give support to them. 

We should also remember where we will find our bearings.  We’re not going to find our deepest bearings in politics alone, in movements or campaigns no matter how passionate or righteous the cause.  It’s not where we should look to find them.  We need to go deeper

To be at our best, our clearest, our most courageous, we find them here in worship. 

We will find them in the holy silence we share.  We will find our bearings in the holy silence in which we listen for God’s leadings.

We will learn again and anew:  that each and every human being is a child of God.  We will learn again and anew:  that each and every human being has the capacity to know God, to hear what God has to tell us, us humans, and to share that with others.  Those others include each and every human being, whatever their race, or religion, whatever their age or their occupation – teacher or student, protestor or policeman. 

We will learn again and anew that violence and domination won’t work.  They only prepare the way for more violence in the future.  We will learn again and anew that in listening carefully to God “we can be changed—even transformed.”  We will learn again and anew that in the holy silence, “We can come to live lives reflecting the Light and Love of God” and that this will give us the clarity and courage to transform the world.  Those words, that “we can be changed—even transformed” and “we can come to live lives reflecting the Light and Love of God” are right up front on the New England Yearly Meeting website about “what we believe.” 

“A time to keep silence and a time to speak;” “a time of war and a time of peace.”  Those are words from Ecclesiastes.  In this troubled time, we need to gather in silence to see where God would direct us, and we need to be prepared to speak and to act when we leave Meeting.  In this time of hate and or war, we must prepare the way for a time of peace and of love.  We need holy silence but not worldly silence. 

Cross-posted on Riverviewfriend.

Quakers Speak Out About Racial Injustice

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June 2020, with updates

New England Yearly Meeting, A Time for Repentance and Transformation, June 5, 2020

The Outgoing Epistle of the 2020 Virtual Pre-Gathering of Friends of Color and their Families, June 28, 2020.

What Is Your Right Next Step? Liz Nicholson, Quaker Voluntary Service, June 3, 2020 with updates

Overcoming Obstacles, Message at DFM by Roland Gibson, February 2018

Transformation Towards Racial Justice, Message at DFM by Nancy Marsaller, October 2017

New England Yearly Meeting Minute on Racism, 2003

Friends Committee on National Legislation: Racism and Whiteness

AFSC Condemns Police Killing of George Floyd and Police Violence Against Protesters 

Friends General Conference: Learn Ways to Take Action Against Systematic Racism

Earlham Board of Trustees Statement Against Racism

Guilford President Jane K. Fernandes and the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Office Denouncing Racial Injustice and Violence

Swarthmore College President Valerie Smith on Uniting Against Racial Injustice

Haverford College President Wendy Raymond on Becoming Anti-Racist

Friends Schools Respond to the Events of May, 2020

Such a Time As This: A Response to Hate and Violence (NEYM, July 18, 2017)

Quakers, Racism and the Blessed Community (QuakerSpeak Video, 10/16/2014)

Children’s and Youth Sunday – Sunday June 7

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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!

“Vulnerability, the Light, and a Personal Message,” by Sukie Rice

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Message given at Durham Friends Meeting, May 3, 2020

Message brought by Sukie Rice on May 3, 2020)

I have recently re-read (for the fourth time) a book called “And There Was Light.”  It is an autobiography by Jacques Lusseyran, a Frenchman born in 1924.  At the age of eight, Lusseyran had an accident that caused him to become totally blind.  Much like Helen Keller, his life was an inspiration to countless numbers of people as he made his blindness become his strongest asset.  Indeed, at age 17 he became the leader of a French resistance group that printed and distributed an underground newspaper, which he and schoolboy friends spread widely.  Within a few years the paper had a distribution of about 50,000, making it one of the most reliable sources of resistance news in the country. There was no book containing the hundreds of names and numbers of members of the group, but instead they were all kept in Lusseyran’s head. But that’s not why I’m telling you about him.

What I want to tell you about is his experience growing up without sight.  He says that from the earliest time after the accident, although he was unable to see the light of the world, much to his amazement, the light was still there.  In all its movement, shades, colors, as strong as it had been when he had had his sight.  When others said he would never see light again, what he discovered is that the Light is not in the in the outer world.  The Light dwells where life also dwells: within ourselves.

His second discovery was that this inner light was dependent on him and his soul condition. When he felt fear, sorrow, anger or envy the light decreased accordingly or became extinguished. It was when he was in a negative soul condition that he was truly blind.  The absence of love was what brought on the loss of the Light.

Needless to say, blindness became the catalyst for him to live a new way.  Each day a school chum would meet him at his door and walk him to school, looking forward to their new day.  Boys vied to give him their shoulder to hold onto as they ran down the roads and through the fields.  He didn’t miss out on play for a moment. He was an excellent student, highly respected for his ability to pay deep attention, his ability to sort out the “truth” from fiction, and his insight into the real intentions and character of others.  He says his blindness was his greatest gift as it gave him access to the real Light.

Now I’m going to shift gears, and talk a little about vulnerability.  Everyone has felt vulnerable at some time or another. People usually don’t like to feel vulnerable.  They often tend to walk away from situations that make them feel vulnerable, sometimes closing themselves off, protecting themselves, finding ways not to feel or show vulnerability.  After all, vulnerability is weakness, isn’t it?

Well, I’m going to say, “no.”  In fact, I believe feeling vulnerable is one of the most valuable things we can allow ourselves to feel.  Allowing ourselves to be vulnerable, to have our hearts be broken, is what can change our lives.  You can’t fall in love without risking getting hurt.  You can’t do most anything worthwhile in life without taking chances and allowing yourself to be vulnerable.

But most of all, I think that it is when we allow ourselves to be vulnerable that we accept our “cracks” through which the Light can enter in. Clearly Jacques Lusseyran embraced his vulnerability and, instead of being angry or sorry for himself, he opened himself and discovered a whole world of Light and a way of seeing from the inner soul.  He treasured this gift he had been given.

Now I’m going to shift gears once again.  And talk about myself and my journey with cancer and of being vulnerable, very vulnerable, as facing one’s mortality makes one become.

Most of you know that I have been dealing with cancer for over 2 ½ years. Stage 3 ovarian cancer has a poor recovery rate, and from the beginning I knew my chances of “beating it” weren’t great.  But I also knew it was a challenge from God and I needed to accept it, to embrace it and to give it my best shot and to take advantage of this disease to change and grow.  I knew God had given it to me as a gift, to crack me open, to be vulnerable and to discover new things.

 It has actually been an incredible journey with so much spiritual seeking, inner growth, and an abundance of love and connection with others.  We ARE connected, deeply connected, although it’s easy for weeks and months to go by without our realizing how powerfully true this is.  Because of my vulnerability I have become intensely conscious of these connections, and because of that, more Love and Light has been coming through the cracks, often with great tenderness.

Now I wish to bring you “up to date” with where I am and what is happening with my cancer.  A month ago I shared with Friends about this during our after-meeting Zoom fellowship and they all said, “Please share this with the rest of the Meeting,” which is why I am doing so today.

Two months ago my CT scan showed the cancer was growing and had metastasized into my lung and pleural cavity.  It was brought there by the lymph, and once the lymph starts carrying cancer cells, it can keep spreading.  The doctor said I could either try one more chemo drug that might hinder the growth of the cancer.  Or I could begin on Hospice.  I chose the chemo.

I have now had two of these chemo treatments and tomorrow I am scheduled to go in for a third.  Unlike the other chemos I have had, this one seems to be especially toxic for my system, and the side effects have been very rugged.  It means I have a great deal of fatigue, nausea, abdominal pain or discomfort, and just plain feel crummy.  I have to sleep sitting up to avoid pain and nausea.  Of course there are pills I take to help reduce the intensity of these side effects, and they are certainly very helpful.  But every meal becomes a challenge.  Having my brain and motivation slow down to a crawl is frustrating. 

I do get some “good days” near the end of the 21-day cycle. This past Wednesday, Friday, yesterday were good days.   I’ve chosen today to bring this message because I knew it would be a good day.  But the number of good or partial good days are far outnumbered by the difficult days and, to be honest, I don’t know how many more of the treatments I can take.

This means, my friends, that I don’t know “what’s in store” for me next.  Except that I continue to be vulnerable and face my mortality.  What has been wonderful in all of this, however, are the conversations I have had with people.  Tender.  Loving.  Deep.  Often with a wave of tears that comes over us.  Always inviting the Light to enter and give us deeper spiritual connection.  People don’t talk about dying very often.  Knowing one is going to die is a very special privilege.  It is so different from the deaths of people from the coronavirus.  To me that is absolutely terrifying.  It isn’t “natural” like heart or lung disease, or cancer or all the other illnesses that take us.  Instead, it comes out of the blue, is fast and furious, and people are separated from loved ones in the most horrific way. Most people think about the numbers and the spread, and the protections and the political differences when they talk about the coronavirus.  I think about the suffering of those people who are dying and their family members. Unlike them, I have had time with my family and friends to slowly get prepared for my passing and to grieve in small ways so that when the time comes, I hope my passing will be a gentle release into the spiritual world rather than a sudden, terrible storm of grief.

Why am I telling you all of this?  Well, mostly because you are my Friends, my spiritual community and we share our spiritual challenges and insights.  I want you to know that I have a very, very deep faith … an absolute conviction of God — the Divine Presence, that is within and all around.  I believe that Christ is a part of that Divine Presence and Light.  I also believe in reincarnation and karma.  I believe that each of us has a Spirit that existed before we were born, lives within each of us as our essential self during our life, which will continue after our death.  It is because of this belief that I can be so accepting of the truth that I am dying.  It is God’s will whenever it happens.  I just want to be surrounded by Love and Prayers to help carry me into my next journey.

And so, I close with this: Let yourself be vulnerable.  Let the cracks happen.  Allow pain and the Light to come in.  Talk about death and dying.  Yes, it is a mystery, but don’t let it be a taboo subject.  Make it personal because some day it will become very personal. 

I express my gratitude to all of you who allow me to share my journey with you, to talk about my final months and days.  I love my husband Lee and my sons so dearly.  And my dear, dear friends.   I believe I will be with them from the other side and will be sharing with them the Light and Joy I experience with my new “eyes.” It will be a new birth.  Let me share it with all of you as well.   (Reference: And There Was Light, by Jacques Lusseyran (New World Library, Novato, CA)

“We Cried Power” About the Poor People’s Campaign to Air May 29 at 7pm and June 3 at 7pm

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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?

  • 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.
  • Learn more about PPC principles and demands at: https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/about/our-principles/

Are you looking for a way to get involved in the Poor People’s Campaign?

  • Register HERE  for our nationwide  June 20th,  virtual mass meeting!
  • Follow PPC Maine social media 
    •  Like Poor People’s Campaign Maine on Facebook!
      • Faith leaders are encouraged to join the “Maine PPC Faith Groups” Facebook group, where we will be posting more info on getting involved 
    • maineppcampaign on Instagram
    • @MainePPCampaign on Twitter
  • Join the Selfie Campaign!
    • Send a selfie video explaining why you signed up for June 20th to Hannah Smith-Erb, Maine PPC student fellow, at hsmith21@colby.edu. The video will be reposted on PPC social media.
    • Post the video on your personal social media. Use #PoorPeoplesCampaign and #PPCMainers. See examples on our social media.
  • Join us for a discussion of “We Cried Power”, a documentary about the PPC
    • View on your own with discussion on Friday, May 29th at 7 and Wednesday, June 3rd at 7
    • RSVP at hsmith21@colby.edu. Hannah will send you the link to the documentary and the zoom link for the discussion. 
  • To be added to our email list, please visit https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/ or email hsmith21@colby.edu 
  • Sign the petition

Durham Monthly Meeting Minutes, May 24, 2020

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            Durham Monthly Meeting of Friends convened via zoom for the conduct of business on Sunday, May 24, 2020, with 17 people present in their own homes.  Martha Hinshaw Sheldon, co-clerk, opened the meeting with a quote from New England Yearly Meeting Faith and Practice on corporate discernment.

1.The April minutes were approved.

2. Finance Committee:   Sarah Sprogell reported that the attached budget has a highlighted column reflecting the reduced expenses that were approved at last month’s business meeting.  Total income for the quarter was $16,338.07.

            We received $2000 in “end of year giving” from 2019, which made up for a reduction in weekly giving in March and will help in future months.  Our quarterly disbursement from NEYM pooled funds was received at its expected level of about $3500.  Overall we have met 26% of our projected annual income as of March 31st.

            Total expenses for the quarter were $9,881.49.  Most areas were under-budget as we hoped, with the exception of fuel oil.  Overall we have paid 16% of our projected annual expenses as of March 31st.  This figure is in keeping with our 30% reduction in expenditures, based on the expected impact of Covid19 restrictions.

             Treasurer, Katharine Hildebrandt, reported that expenses for April were $5035 and our income was $6200.

3. Peace and Social concerns Committee: Ingrid Chalufour reminded us to visit the meeting web site for information on upcoming events of the committee. 

4. Charity Account ad-hoc Committee:  Katharine Hildebrandt reported for the committee and presented proposed guidelines concerning the uses and criteria for the Charity Account:

            “The Charity account is to be administered, after careful consideration in each unique situation, for both Charitable Requests and Supported Ministry (Leadings) purposes.

            In terms of Supported Ministry (Leadings), coming from members and regular attenders, the request will be brought to a standing meeting committee first to prayerfully consider said request for funds. The meeting committee will then bring the request to monthly meeting, with the request added to an agenda that is distributed ahead of the monthly meeting.

            In considering proposals to support a ministry, we recommend the following criteria:

  • Alignment of the ministry with the faith and practice of Friends, including the testimonies. 
  • The character and integrity of the person or group seeking support.
  • The likely effectiveness (not just good intentions) of the effort.

In other words, does this ministry help to deepen and promote the life, not only of the individual or group, but the life of the whole meeting as well? 

            In terms of Charitable Requests, the request will be brought to a standing meeting committee first to prayerfully consider said request for funds. The meeting committee will then bring the request to monthly meeting, with the request added to an agenda, distributed ahead of the monthly meeting.

            In the case of emergencies, a request for financial assistance could be brought to the monthly meeting by a meeting committee, where it would be tended, weighed and prayerfully decided on by that monthly meeting. In this case the request would be communicated to the meeting community ahead of time.    

            The Charity Account, in general, would not be a source of funding for other Quaker organizations and causes such as FCNL, AFSC, QUNO, NEYM, Tedford Housing, or LACO, as these are included in the annual budget as contributions.

Requests for funds will generally be no greater than $1,000.00.”

              A thoughtful discussion ensued with suggestions for revisions; the result was that final approval of these guidelines will be made at the June monthly meeting.

5. Trustees:  Donna Hutchins sent a report which stated that they are looking into developing a green burial space at the Lund Road Cemetery.  Tess Hartford is currently painting the meeting worship room. Katharine Hildebrandt reported that Andy Higgins has been hired to do some grounds maintanence.

6. Christian Education Committee and Youth Minister: Wendy Schlotterbeck reported that Storytimes are being held each Wednesday evening via Zoom.  Books read so far are: The Wolf’s Chicken Stew, Malala’s Magic Pencil, Moon watchers, and The Tree House.  A Plant Sale will be held June 5th through June 8.  Children and Youth Sunday will be June 7th when meeting for worship via zoom will include content directed at our younger participants.  The committee will sponsor the popular Faith Journey sharing on the second and fourth Sunday mornings, 9:30-10:15.

            Fridays from 5-6pm Wendy is on zoom with New England Yearly Meeting Young Friends during their weekly affinity group check-ins.

            Wendy will be clerking the Committee for this year.

7. Snap Re-Boot project: Although the Charity Fund guidelines are yet to be approved, we reconsidered the request for funds to support this project, which are still needed.  The meeting discussed donating the amount of $1000, with appreciation for the two committees that have recommended support of the project.

8.  We approved the amount of $1000 for the Snap Re-Boot project, with two members standing aside, noting their hesitation to approve the project at this time.

9. Carbon Footprint Ad Hoc Committee: Kim Bolshaw, Katharine Hildebrandt, and Ingrid Chalfour attended a web-based workshop focused on greening meetinghouses, sponsored by New England Yearly Meeting Finance Committee.  John Reuthe from Vassalboro Meeting made the presentation.  John suggested that we, as a meeting, discuss what we mean by greening our meetinghouse.  In the absence of an opportunity to have this discussion, the committee is working on the assumption that our goal is to lower use of carbon fuel.  John’s presentation has influenced our development of a three-phase plan for our meetinghouse regarding insulation, cold air from the basement, and window inserts for the winter.

10. Ministry and Counsel:  Martha Hinshaw reported that at their next meeting they will look at how to safely return to gathering in the meetinghouse.

            The meeting recently received the sad news that member Phyllis White Wetherell died on April 25, in Richmond, Indiana where she had retired at Friends Fellowship Retirement Home.  Ministry and Counsel is preparing a draft memorial minute to be approved in June.

            Martha Hinshaw closed the meeting with the admonition: Go in Peace! 

Dorothy Hinshaw, Recording Clerk

Can You Gather With God Over Zoom?

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The New York Times asks the question, and shows that Quakers can and do. Photographs and Text by Bianca Giaever. (May be subject to paywall.)

The subtitle: “Quakerism goes virtual, offering an intimate window into silent worship.” Durham Friends Meeting isn’t mentioned; the focus is on Meetings in Brooklyn, Middlebury (Vt.) and Portland (Maine).

Annual DFM Plant Sale, June 5 to June 8, 2020

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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.,

  1. Name of plant
  2. Sun or shade requirements
  3. Annual or perennial
  4. Height
  5. Color of blooms
  6. Any special instructions
  7. Suggested donation amount

“Faith, Understanding and God’s Availability,” by Brown Lethem

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Message given at Durham Friends Meeting, April 19, 2020

Good Morning Friends,      

In Brooklyn Meeting where I attended for many years, we had a young man who quite often fell asleep in meeting for worship. which was one thing, but being stout, he also snored rather heavily.  As you can imagine, Friends felt some consternation.   

Those worshiping near him questioned, should we wake him with a gentle poke in the ribs, or should we incorporate the snores into our worship as we did the more gentle noises of the children, the coughs and the ticking of the clock.    Since his Faith brought him regularly to worship and into his profound experience of silence, perhaps our faith, that God might speak to him in dreams, would happen, as it often did with the prophets of the Old Testament.

Today in the visual world and with the mute button, we are not faced with that dilemma!

As in my previous messages I am most comfortable speaking out of my personal journey. It was George Fox who cautioned, Speak from experience.  I have spoken in meeting when moved, but briefly, I have never preached. My way in life, has been as artist, carpenter, art teacher… so what I have to say, is simply, personal testimony. And, if I ramble, forgive me. I hope it will come together.

These past weeks have been solitary.  After the first week of this enforced retreat, this Query came to me: God and Nature in Her silent knowing, have plunged us into the mystery of life … and death. Can we decipher it?   Is it leading us towards desired goals of ending wars, healing our environment and right sharing of the world’s resources?  And how might I be a part of that consciousness change? Wow! some query.

Faith must come before understanding.  This piece of meditational wisdom has gotten my attention more than once, most recently, I believe in Richard Rohr’s daily meditations.  The quote immediately rang a bell for me since at age 30 I had experienced a revelatory vision that put to rest the question of God’s presence in my life. That brief epiphany, an experience of pure faith, based on grace, and, in time of desperate need, was indelible.  At that moment GOD was the only reality.                       

That awareness stayed within me, as a lodestone but in seed form.  My active life of work and marriage … and kids took precedence.

 Despite my Christian upbringing, my resistance to the miraculous aspects of the New Testament Gospel persisted.  My university education and low-keyed protestant experience prepared me for the Prophet of Love, not the God incarnate. My intellect and understanding kept getting in the way of the extension of my Faith, however it did bring me to Quakers.

When I became a Friend, I embraced the mystery of God’s presence in all persons.  Something I had intuited often… Also, I embraced the truth of ongoing revelation. In both my life and in the world at large.

Larry Floyd was an older Quaker in Brooklyn Monthly Meeting who hired me to do some carpentry work on his house in the mid 80’s.  On a break one day we talked about our faith and my lack of understanding of the mysteries surrounding Christ.   At one point he said casually, you might think about the Christ Within.  Despite my long struggle after that with the misuse of Christ or Christianity in fundamentalist religion, he had planted a slow growing seed.  I have grown to accept that idea. It refused to abandon me. If as I believed as a Quaker, “There was that of God in every person, that could mean that in each of us there is a transubstantiated seed of Christ, That “still small voice,” “The Christ Within,” a beautiful and inspiring metaphor.

The human body and mind, in all its complexity is truly a miracle.  Craig made that point so well last week! The birth of my three children remains a miraculous experience.

AND … Though questions remain, the seed expands, as my own limitations become clear.  New levels of transformation surface.  We are a work in process.  The seed becomes a bridge.  Along that life bridge the seed of Christ’s essential role in my acceptance of God’s will emerges.  I believe God awaits our acceptance and resolution of the material world with the Spiritual world of God.  That process illuminating and incorporating our lives into the body of God must proceed in stages. The first stage available to human understanding is opening to the seed, The Christ Within.                     

Is this not the beautiful message of Jesus in the New Testament?

                        The journey of the seed,

                                    The seed within the Light of On-Going Revelation        

                         journeys to Union with God,

                                    Through The Christ WithIn. 

When I joined Durham Meeting, Sukie gave me a large print copy of the New Testament. I see that as symbolic of a new acceptance of love and opening to community, embodied in this Meeting.

“What Does It Mean to Be Alive?” by Doug Bennett

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Excerpt from a message given at Durham Friends Meeting, May 10, 2020

…….It turns out we aren’t so different from the virus.  It can’t exist by itself/on its own.  But neither can we. 

This is one lesson we’ve all been learning as we have been shut up in our homes, distancing ourselves from one another: that we need one another.  But it’s more than that: we need each other in a relationship of love that connects us with God because that is what gives us life.  The Gospel of John expresses this in a powerful metaphor:  Jesus says:

4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.5 I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. …

But there is another lesson, harder, but at least as important about ‘being alive.’  In this time of virus, in this time of dying, it is easy to fall into thinking that ‘all living things are good.’ What lives is all part of God’s glory, all to be nurtured, all to be celebrated, all to be saved.  It’s easy to think that — especially easy as spring blooms around us. 

As we gather here separated from one another, however, we know this is not so.  There are bits of creation that are not so good, and this virus is one of them.  The cancers that afflict too many of us: they are another.  Murder wasps: we’ve just started hearing about them.  Black flies.  Typhus and typhoid and smallpox.  I mean all these things, but there’s more. 

There are also bits of ourselves that live all too commonly within us, things that are not good:  selfishness, pride, envy, greed, wrath – things like that.  These things become a part of us all too easily, and they are things that should not live within us.  We might think of them as like a virus.  They live within us, become a part of us, even take over our lives.  They infect us. 

They are little bits of us – within us – that should not be living. 

Jesus asks us to let these things die within us so that we can live a new and transformed life.  Some of the hardest parts of the New Testament are about this. 

Says Paul in Colossians:  5 Therefore put to death the parts of your earthly nature.   In his letters to the Romans, Paul says:  13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

And in Ephesians, Paul reminds us:  22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Can we think of these things, our “deceitful desires” that too easily become a part of us, as like a virus, having life only because they latch onto us and work their own purposes?  Can we think of these things as parts of us that must die so we can truly live?  Can we think of them as infections – even infections we carelessly pass from one to another?  If we can, we know the cure:  to love one another in the vine.  

Can we find ourselves a new life by ridding ourselves of these, by loving one another?  This is the transformed life to which we are called.

The entire message can be found on Riverview Friend.

Durham Friends Storytime, Wednesdays at 6:45 pm

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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)

“Gathering,” by Noah Merrill

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Message given at Durham Friends Meeting, April 26, 2020

Since I was a child, I’ve heard that there’s no such thing as a solitary Quaker. You could say that we are a people defined by gathering.

When you think about it, gathering feels so essential to who we are that a collection of Quakers—really of any size—is called a “meeting.” Even more than other churches or spiritual communities I know, gathering in various forms shapes our common life. The calendars of Friends across New England are filled with “meetings”—meetings for worship, monthly meetings, quarterly meetings, any number of other meetings. One of our most beloved origin stories speaks about George Fox’s vision, on Pendle Hill in England, of a “great people to be gathered.” Gathering, it seems, is in our DNA as a People.    

And yet, here we are. Click here for the rest of the message.

These are the opening words of the message that Noah Merrill, General Secretary of New England Yearly Meeting, brought to Durham Friends on April 26, 2020 — brought via Zoom. Three dozen or so Friends heard this message in their homes as Noah spoke from his home many miles away. Follow the link to the NEYM website for the rest of his message.

Memorial in Solitude — Remembering Phyllis Wetherell

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Memorial in Solitude — From Derek Parker, Pastor, First Friends Meeting, Richmond, Indiana — April 26, 2020

            Saturday night Nancy Tyndall phoned me, to let me know that Phyllis Wetherell had died.  Phyllis died in hospice care at Reid Hospital, from non-Covid causes.
            As of the morning of Sunday, April 26 about 54,000 people in the United States have died from the coronavirus.  Other people like Phyllis also die of non-Covid causes.  If you are reading this you may only be one or two degrees removed from somebody who has died from coronavirus, or from other causes.  With social distancing, funerals will likely be limited to small groups of 5-10 people, outdoors, and graveside.  It can hurt to be apart when we need our family and friends; and when we need an opportunity to say goodbye.
            Many of us say, “I will pray for you.”  And I have no doubt that we do that.  But most Protestants get little instruction about how to do this.  It is easier to follow through on our prayers, when we have a plan.
            So today I got out the prayer-books in my office to make a plan for how to pray for Phyllis, and for others whose memorials I may not be able to attend.  I recommend finding a quiet place to make your plan, and then carry it out.

O Thou kind Lord!  Thou hast created all humanity from the same stock.  Thou hast decreed that all shall belong to the same household.  In Thy Holy Presence they are all Thy servants, and all humankind are sheltered beneath Thy Tabernacle; all have gathered together at Thy Table of Bounty; and all are illuminated through the light of Thy Providence. – Amen           

After that first prayer I’m going to take a silent moment to think about Phyllis.  I’ve known her for a long time.  She was finishing her employment at ESR when I was a prospective student over 20 years ago.  As a student at ESR we had a picnic table dedicated in celebration of her years of service.

            She was a member of West Richmond Friends Meeting, but I reconnected with Phyllis through the Thursday First Friends Book Group that met at Friends Fellowship.  Her thinking about the books was sharp, and her humor was bright.  I can still picture her sitting in her chair at Book Group.  Her sudden departure from this world is a bit of a shock.

            At some point I will need to end my silence.  And close with another prayer.

O Lord, support us all the days of this life, until the shadows lengthen, the evening comes, the busy world is hushed, the fever of life is over, and our work is done.  Then in Your mercy grant us a safe lodging, a holy rest, and peace at the last.  AMEN

I plan to pray this way.  I would even appreciate somebody else praying for me this way, after my life comes to an end.  I suggest that you make a plan for how to pray in memory of others who have died.  You don’t need to use the same prayers I used.  You could substitute the Lord’s Prayer, or Psalm 23, or Psalm 24, or a more spontaneous prayer.  In the face of terrible news in a time of solitude, respond with faith and prayer.

            May God give us strength in times of sorrow, whenever those times come.  And wherever we are, may we be inspired to pray with those who mourn.

State of Society, 2019

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In 2019, Durham Friends Meeting was a spiritually vital, supportive worship community in Maine’s lower midcoast.  Our numbers were a little diminished this year.  Nevertheless, there was strong ministry from a wide array of members. We looked after one another — sometimes in difficult situations–, and we leaned into our commitments to peace, justice and sustainability throughout the year.  

On a typical First Day, we gathered a few dozen people in worship.  Now in our third year as a programmed and yet unpastored Friends Meeting, messages are generally brought in turn by members of the meeting.  Occasionally we invite someone from a neighboring Meeting or a Friends organization to bring a prepared message.  Eighteen different members or regular attenders gave these messages this year.  The honesty of these efforts at seeking and speaking the truth are the soul of our Meeting. 

As we gather in worship, one or another Friend calls out a hymn for us to sing together.  A few much-appreciated members of the Meeting rotate the responsibility to play the piano to accompany this hymn singing.  We also close Meeting with a hymn chosen at the moment.  Often there is a wonderful resonance between the hymns we sing and the messages we share. 

We are a Meeting that takes delight in children, and we celebrate the births and significant moments in the lives of the children, grandchildren and great grandchildren of our members and regular attenders.  One of our members, with assistance from others, takes care that a quilt is sewn and gifted when a child or grandchild is born, even at a distance.  We provide childcare and adult Sunday school every Sunday all year and offer Sunday school during the school year for children and youth on the first and third Sundays of the month.  Our Christian Education Committee sponsored several intergenerational game nights, a yard and plant sale, a Children’s Day, and wreath-making and egg painting occasions.  We are especially grateful for the work of our Youth Minister. 

Julie Fogg passed away in the spring, and Clarabel Marstaller passed away in the fall.    A mentor to many of us, for decades Clarabel was a stalwart member, a wise and cheerful steward of both this Meeting and of New England Yearly Meeting as well.   We mourn the passing of both.  We welcomed a few newcomers who have joined the Meeting this year, and we miss a few who have drifted away. 

We have been challenged this year to provide care for an unusual number of our members who are aging, ill, poorly housed or facing other significant life difficulties.  Providing the right approach and finding the right people with sufficient time to devote has been regularly before us.   We are grateful for the generosity of spirit and energy that has allowed us to meet these challenges, many of which continue. 

Our Peace and Social Concerns Committee has made climate crisis issues a particular focus of attention.  They hosted a film series, a youth panel and house parties to raise awareness, and sponsored climate crisis events with other churches in midcoast Maine.  They also supported lobbying efforts encouraged by the Friends Committee on National Legislation. 

Several of our members (and this has been true, too, in the past) are significantly involved in in wider engagements among Friends and the concerns that animate Friends.  These include New England Yearly Meeting, Friends United Meeting, AFSC, Pendle Hill, the Center for Courage and Renewal, the Lisbon Area Christian Outreach foodbank, promoting civility in public discourse, supporting refugees, sponsoring peace vigils around Bath Iron Works (a builder of war weapons), prison reform, the Kakamega Orphan Care Center in Kenya, and opposition to gun violence.  A hardworking affiliate of USFWI, our Woman’s Society continues to provide spiritual sustenance and practical support for nearly everything we do. 

The Meeting continues to host a Twelve-Step Group and a Native American worship group. 

Our Finance Committee gave needed attention to reorganizing the Meeting’s finances (especially its various funds and bequests), and our Trustees gave diligent attention to care for our Meetinghouse, rented parsonage and burial grounds. 

We are seeking wider attention to our community’s spiritual life, fellowship and our concerns and leadings.  We widened the purview of our Newsletter Committee to become a Communications Committee.  With that change we are trying to see how best to communicate – in both old and new ways — with all who are a part of Durham Friends Meeting. 

A very old Meeting, Durham Friends is finding ways to renew itself.

Approved at Monthly Meeting for Business on April 19, 2020

Durham Monthly Meeting Minutes, April 19, 2020

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            Durham Monthly Meeting of Friends convened via Zoom (electronically) for the conduct of business on Sunday, April 19, 2020 with approximately 19 people present in their own homes, due to the pandemic coronavirus crisis.  Martha Hinshaw Sheldon, co-clerk, opened the meeting reminding us that the meeting is located on Wabanaki land; and that people are the church, and not the building.

1. The February and March minutes were approved.

2. Ministry and Counsel:  Martha Sheldon reported for the committee:

            The State of Society Report (attached) was read with appreciation to Douglas Bennett who drafted the report.

            Memorial Minutes for Clarabel Marstaller and Eileen Babcock were presented.  All expressed gratitude for their long lives of service in the Society of Friends and Durham Friends Meeting. These minutes are attached.

            Ministry and Counsel discussed end of life issues, political expressions in meeting, and pastoral care concerns.  Please inform Ministry and Counsel of those in need. 

            The meeting learned with sadness that member Edith (Edie) Lamb Whitehead died April 18, 2020. 

3. We approved the State of Society Report which will be reported to Falmouth Quarterly Meeting.

4. We approved Memorial Minutes for Clarabel Hadley Marstaller and Eileen Babcock.

5.   Peace and Social Concerns: Ingrid Chalufour reported that the committee was asked to review and bring forward a recommendation made in February for funds to support the SNAP ReBoot project.  It was sent to Peace and Social Concerns because requests for Charity Fund Account money is best to come from a standing committee.   Peace and Social Concerns Committee researched additional information about this project and, being fully satisfied with Theresa Oleksiw’s answers and having received a letter of strong support from the Maine Equal Justice Project for the project, they recommend that the meeting support the project to the level of $3000.  The full committee report is attached. 

             We then revisited the February 2020 monthly meeting decision to use the Charity Fund for this project.  A lengthly discussion ensued, with a number of options how we might proceed.  One option was to proceed with assistance to the project but at a level of $1000.   We will revisit this option at the May monthly meeting to give the meeting time to season the decision.  If anyone wishes to contribute to the Project at this time, they are encouraged to send donations to the Durham treasurer who will send them on directly to Theresa.  Notice of this will appear in the Newsletter.  

6.  We approved the following persons to serve as an ad-hoc committee for reviewing guidelines for the Charity Account:  Joyce Gibson, Tess Hartford, Katharine Hildebrandt and Brown Letham. 

            The Peace and Social Concerns Committee urges us to visit their posts on the Durham Friends Meeting web site.

7. Christian Education:  Wendy Schlotterbeck reported for the committee. CE met on March 1 and discussed the the Annual Plant and Yard Sale, tentatively set for May 23, Children’s Day, usually the first Sunday in June (June 7), and the Annual Family Campout June 13-14 or June 20-21.  The committee will re-evaluate whether/how these events might happen because of the stay at home order.   Easter was none the less celebrated: Wendy ordered chocolate Easter bunnies and gummy carrots from a local candy shop and had them sent to 7 Durham families with children. In addition, Amy Kustra drew a coloring page of Durham Meeting house and “hid” Easter eggs in the picture for the kids to color. Wendy created blank stamped and addressed postcards for the kids to color and send to a Durham friend. The postcards and coloring pages were sent to the Durham children along with a letter from Wendy.

We have a need for substitute Sunday School teachers for the Godly Play and youth classes; if anyone would be willing to help out if a teacher is sick or unable to teach on a particular Sunday, please see Wendy Schlotterbeck.

Ashley Marstaller informed us that due to staffing changes at her work, she can no longer be the Childcare worker on Sunday mornings. We are looking for a replacement. In the meantime Amy Kustra volunteered to be present from 10:15-12:15 on 2nd, 4th and 5th Sundays to take care of children until we find a replacement.

Wendy has met 3 times with Durham youth over Zoom to check in during March/April, and checked in with families by phone, text and/or e-mail.  She has met via zoom at the weekly NEYM leadership meetings, and will continue to join the calls,

and staffed the Young Friends virtual retreat held Friday-Saturday April 17-18. Twenty-three youth attended and seemed especially grateful for the chance to be together with other NEYM youth and adults.

8. Finance:  Sarah Sprogell reported for the committee which outlined major sources of income which stand to decrease, and the committee recommended steps to reduce the meeting expenses.  A full report with recommendations is attached. 

9. We approved an adjusted budget, and accepted with gratitude the Finance Committee report.

10 Trustees: Katharine Hildebrandt and Donna Hutchins reported that C & Z Plumbing installed a new water heater and a new toilet at the Parsonage. Plumbers checked the building and no other issues were noted.  The electrician installed a new breaker for the new hot water heater and the bathroom outlets. He inspected wiring and said there are no issues and the building is up to code. Dan Henton installed a new lock and door knob on front door. These repairs thus far have cost $ 2731.29.

Meetinghouse repairs::The electrician installed a new outside security LED light at the Meetinghouse, and put in a new pull switch over the piano. C & Z Plumbing installed new faucets and cleaned up and replaced old plumbing under the five sinks. A water test has been done and a system was recommended to address mineral issues. The water is safe to drink. A backwash filter system has been installed in the basement and all other existing, outdated and/or malfunctioning filter systems were removed. Trustees recommend that Tess Hartford continue her painting in the meetinghouse. These repairs thus far have cost $ 4150.00.

The cell phone tower has recently been approved by the town. The company, Northern Pride, is ready to install the tower.

The balance of the Capital Account is now $24,311.80 which includes the Efficiency Maine rebate for the new water heater in the parsonage.  This is a corrected balance which was reported as $41,765 in the Newsletter.  A complete report is attached. 

Trustees would like to recommend that Craig Freshley be added to Trustees.

11.  We approved the addition of Craig Freshley to Trustees.

12.  We approved that Tess Hartford perform painting tasks in the meetinghouse

13.  Martha Sheldon reminded us that Falmouth Quarterly Meeting will be held this Saturday, April 25, via Zoom. Representatives are Martha Sheldon and Sarah Sprogell.

14.  .Sarah Sprogell presented the 2019 Statistical Report which is attached.  Sarah reported that we have 106 members, with 44 active.  We had two new members and 2 deaths for 2019.

15.  Sarah Sprogell, auditor, presented the 2016-2017 audit for Durham Monthly Meeting of Friends.  This report was accepted with appreciation.

16.  With regret, the United Society of Friends Women International and Friends United Meeting triennials have been canceled for this summer.  Funds donated to our representatives for travel and participation will be refunded to the meeting.

            Our monthly meeting lasted longer than usual with much discussion about various matters, so we departed without much ado; we bade each one farewell until the next time!   Walk in the Light.

 Dorothy Hinshaw, Recording Clerk

State of Society — Durham Monthly Meeting of Friends — 2019

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In 2019, Durham Friends Meeting was a spiritually vital, supportive worship community in Maine’s lower midcoast.  Our numbers were a little diminished this year.  Nevertheless, there was strong ministry from a wide array of members. We looked after one another — sometimes in difficult situations–, and we leaned into our commitments to peace, justice and sustainability throughout the year.  

On a typical First Day, we gathered a few dozen people in worship.  Now in our third year as a programmed and yet unpastored Friends Meeting, messages are generally brought in turn by members of the meeting.  Occasionally we invite someone from a neighboring Meeting or a Friends organization to bring a prepared message.  Eighteen different members or regular attenders gave these messages this year.  The honesty of these efforts at seeking and speaking the truth are the soul of our Meeting. 

As we gather in worship, one or another Friend calls out a hymn for us to sing together.  A few much-appreciated members of the Meeting rotate the responsibility to play the piano to accompany this hymn singing.  We also close Meeting with a hymn chosen at the moment.  Often there is a wonderful resonance between the hymns we sing and the messages we share. 

We are a Meeting that takes delight in children, and we celebrate the births and significant moments in the lives of the children, grandchildren and great grandchildren of our members and regular attenders.  One of our members, with assistance from others, takes care that a quilt is sewn and gifted when a child or grandchild is born, even at a distance.  We provide childcare and adult Sunday school every Sunday all year and offer Sunday school during the school year for children and youth on the first and third Sundays of the month.  Our Christian Education Committee sponsored several intergenerational game nights, a yard and plant sale, a Children’s Day, and wreath-making and egg painting occasions.  We are especially grateful for the work of our Youth Minister. 

Julie Fogg passed away in the spring, and Clarabel Marstaller passed away in the fall.    A mentor to many of us, for decades Clarabel was a stalwart member, a wise and cheerful steward of both this Meeting and of New England Yearly Meeting as well.   We mourn the passing of both.  We welcomed a few newcomers who have joined the Meeting this year, and we miss a few who have drifted away. 

We have been challenged this year to provide care for an unusual number of our members who are aging, ill, poorly housed or facing other significant life difficulties.  Providing the right approach and finding the right people with sufficient time to devote has been regularly before us.   We are grateful for the generosity of spirit and energy that has allowed us to meet these challenges, many of which continue. 

Our Peace and Social Concerns Committee has made climate crisis issues a particular focus of attention.  They hosted a film series, a youth panel and house parties to raise awareness, and sponsored climate crisis events with other churches in midcoast Maine.  They also supported lobbying efforts encouraged by the Friends Committee on National Legislation. 

Several of our members (and this has been true, too, in the past) are significantly involved in in wider engagements among Friends and the concerns that animate Friends.  These include New England Yearly Meeting, Friends United Meeting, AFSC, Pendle Hill, the Center for Courage and Renewal, the Lisbon Area Christian Outreach foodbank, promoting civility in public discourse, supporting refugees, sponsoring peace vigils around Bath Iron Works (a builder of war weapons), prison reform, the Kakamega Orphan Care Center in Kenya, and opposition to gun violence.  A hardworking affiliate of USFWI, our Woman’s Society continues to provide spiritual sustenance and practical support for nearly everything we do. 

The Meeting continues to host a Twelve-Step Group and a Native American worship group. 

Our Finance Committee gave needed attention to reorganizing the Meeting’s finances (especially its various funds and bequests), and our Trustees gave diligent attention to care for our Meetinghouse, rented parsonage and burial grounds. 

We are seeking wider attention to our community’s spiritual life, fellowship and our concerns and leadings.  We widened the purview of our Newsletter Committee to become a Communications Committee.  With that change we are trying to see how best to communicate – in both old and new ways — with all who are a part of Durham Friends Meeting. 

A very old Meeting, Durham Friends is finding ways to renew itself.

Approved at Monthly Meeting for Business on April 19, 2020

Message from Pastor Yadira of Velasco Friends Meeting, April 12, 2020

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[Velasco Friends Meeting is our Sister Meeting in Cuba]

Easter (or Resurrection Sunday) Commemorates the resurrection of Jesus.

Luke 24: 1-7; Matthew 28: 1-10; Mark 16: 1-8; John 20: 1-10). Mark-16: 1-8 He is risen!

One thing is certain: If Jesus had not risen, we would never have heard anything about Him. The attitude of the women was that they had come to offer the last tribute to a dead body. The attitude of the disciples was that everything had ended in tragedy.

By far the best proof of the Resurrection is the existence of the Christian Church. Nothing else could have changed those sad and desperate men and women into people radiant with joy and inflamed with courage. The Resurrection is the central fact of the entire Christian faith. Because we believe in the Resurrection, certain things are followed.

1- Jesus is not the character of a book, but a living Presence. It is not enough to study the history of Jesus as we would study the life of a great historical figure. We may start from that, but we must go to meet Him and this encounter leads to transformation, change, witness to a new life.

2- Jesus is not a memory, but a Presence. The dearest memories fade away. The Greeks had an expression to describe time, which means time that erases everything. Long ago, time would have erased the memory of Jesus if it were not for the fact that He has remained a living Presence with us forever. Jesus is not someone we argue with, but someone we meet.

3- The Christian life is not the life of a person who knows about Jesus, but the life of a person who knows Jesus. There is an insurmountable difference in the world between knowing something about a person, and knowing a person. Almost everyone knows something about the President of Cuba or the President of the United States; but not so many know them. The greatest scholar in the world who knew everything there is to know about the Jesus of History is less than the humblest Christian, who knows Him.

4- The Christian faith has an endless quality. It must never stand still. Because our Lord is a living Lord there are new wonders and new truths waiting all the time for us to discover them. But the most precious thing about the passage (in Mark) is  in two words that do not appear in any other gospel. “Go,” said the messenger, “tell His disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee- there you will see him, as he told you.” How Peter’s heart must have been moved by that message when he received it! He must have been tortured with the memory of his disloyalty, and suddenly a special message arrives for him. It is characteristic of Jesus to think, not of the evil that Peter had done to him, but of the remorse that was besieging him. Jesus was far more interested in comforting the penitent sinner than in punishing his sin. As someone has said: The most precious thing about Jesus is that he confirms his confidence in the same terrain in which we have suffered defeat.

Thanks to Nancy Marstaller for forwarding this.

Domingo de Pascua o de Resurrección: Conmemora la resurrección de Jesús (Lucas 24:1-7; Mateo 28: 1-10; Marcos 16: 1-8; Juan 20:1-10). 

Marcos-16:1-8-! Ha-Resucitado

Una cosa es segura: Si Jesús no hubiera resucitado, nosotros nunca habríamos oído nada acerca de Él. La actitud de las mujeres era que habían ido a ofrecer el último tributo a un cuerpo muerto. La actitud de los discípulos era que todo había acabado en tragedia.

Con mucho la mejor prueba de la Resurrección es la existencia de la Iglesia Cristiana. Ninguna otra cosa podría haber cambiado a aquellos hombres y mujeres tristes y desesperados en personas radiantes de gozo e inflamadas de coraje. La Resurrección es el hecho central de toda la fe cristiana. Porque creemos en la Resurrección se siguen ciertas cosas.

1- Jesús no es el personaje de un libro, sino una Presencia viva. No basta con estudiar la historia de Jesús como estudiaríamos la vida de una gran figura histórica. Puede que empecemos por eso, pero debemos pasar a encontrarnos con El y este encuentro lleva a transformación, cambio, testimonio de una nueva vida

2- Jesús no es un recuerdo, sino una Presencia. Las memorias más queridas se desvanecen. Los griegos tenían una expresión para describir el tiempo, que quiere decir el tiempo que borra todas las cosas. Hace mucho que el tiempo habría borrado el recuerdo de Jesús si no fuera porque Él ha seguido siendo una Presencia viva con nosotros para siempre. Jesús no es alguien de quien discutimos, sino Alguien con Quien nos encontramos.

3– La vida cristiana no es la vida de una persona que sabe de Jesús, sino la vida de una persona que conoce a Jesús. Hay una diferencia insalvable en el mundo entre saber algo acerca de una persona, y conocer a una persona. Casi todo el mundo sabe algo del presidente de Cuba o del Presidente de los Estados Unidos; pero no tantos los conocen. El más grande erudito del mundo que supiera todo lo que se puede saber acerca del Jesús de la Historia es menos que el cristiano más humilde, que Le conoce.

4- La fe cristiana tiene una cualidad interminable. No debe quedarse nunca parada. Porque nuestro Señor es un Señor vivo hay nuevas maravillas y nuevas verdades esperando todo el tiempo a que las descubramos. Pero lo más precioso de este pasaje está en dos palabras que no aparecen en ningún otro evangelio.  Id -dijo el mensajero, decid a Sus discípulos y a Pedro. ¡Cómo tiene que haber emocionado el corazón de Pedro ese mensaje cuando lo recibió! Debe-de haber estado torturado con el recuerdo de su deslealtad, y de pronto llega un mensaje especial para él. Es característico de Jesús el pensar, no en el mal que Pedro Le había hecho, sino en el remordimiento que le estaba asediando. Jesús tenía mucho más interés en confortar al pecador penitente que en castigar su pecado. Como ha dicho alguien: Lo más precioso de Jesús es que nos confirma Su confianza en el mismo terreno en que hemos sufrido una derrota.

Durham Friends Guidelines for Zoom Meeting for Worship

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April 9, 2020

We’re so glad you are willing to participate in our Zoom Meeting for Worship. While less-than-ideal, we find this a helpful way to gather in spite of our need to keep our distance. We try to make our Zoom Meeting reverent and as similar as possible to the meetings in our Meetinghouse. Note: you will need a password and we’ve sent this out via e-mail. If you don’t have it, please ask another member of the meeting.

To join you will need the following information:

  • Meeting Link        https://zoom.us/j/2814426094
  • Meeting ID           281-442-6094
  • Password            Ask a Friend if you don’t have it or send e-mail to dougb@earlham.edu
  • Phone number     301-715-8592, or 929-205-6099, or 312-626-6799,
  • or: 669-900-6833, 253-215-8782, 346-248-7799

To Join by screen:

  • Click on the meeting link
  • Allow the page to open zoom.us.app
  • Enter the Durham Friends Zoom Meeting password (ask a Friend if you don’t have it)
  • You will be put on hold until you are admitted by the Host

If you have trouble trying to join by screen

  • If you receive a prompt that says “This Meeting is Authorized for Attendees only” it means you have a Zoom account but are not logged into it. Click “Sign in to join”
    • Enter your email address and the password associated with your Zoom account
    • Enter the Durham Friends Zoom Meeting password (ask a Friend if you don’t have it)
  • If you receive a prompt that says “When prompted, select Open with and then OK,” click OK or Download here.
    • Work through a series of prompts to install software. You may need to provide your computer username and password (the username and password used to access administrative features on your computer).
    • After installing software automatically, if the Zoom Meeting doesn’t automatically launch, find where the software is installed on your computer and double click it to launch (On a Mac use Finder to find it in Downloads or in Applications. On a PC use Explorer to find it in Downloads or Programs)

To Join by Phone:

  • Dial 301-715-8592
  • When prompted enter the meeting ID 281-442-6094 followed by #
  • When asked for the Participant ID, enter #
  • Enter the Password when asked (ask a Friend if you don’t have it)

Timing:

Join the Meeting anytime after 10:15am on any Sunday. Like entering our Meeting Room in Durham, this is quiet time unless absolutely necessary to speak up because you are having some sort of technical difficulty. The Meeting will formally begin around 10:30, opened by the Meeting Leader. The Meeting will typically end around 11:30 followed by informal and un-moderated fellowship time for catching up with each other.

Your name as it appears to others:

Please write your first and last name when joining. To change how your name appears after the meeting has started, open the Participant list by clicking the participant icon at the bottom of the scree, find yourself on the list and mouse over your name, click more, click rename.

To Unmute:

All are muted upon entering the meeting. To unmute if participating by screen, press the space bar on your keyboard or unmute yourself by clicking the microphone icon in the bottom left of your screen. To unmute if participating by phone, press *6 to unmute or mute.

To Raise Your Hand:

By screen, raise your hand as usual. Make sure your Video is unmuted.

By phone, press *9.

There are times when raising a hand is not necessary to speak. Use your judgment. If people are waiting to be called on, it is the Meeting Leader who calls on people.

Chat:

By clicking the Chat icon at the bottom of your screen you can send written messages to the whole meeting or to specific people. Phone participants don’t have access to these chat messages. If you want something to be conveyed to the whole meeting, raise your hand and say it out loud.

Hymns:

When it’s time for a hymn someone will play it on piano for all to hear. Words will be provided in advance or on the screen. You are encouraged to sing along but only if you are on mute. It doesn’t work well for anyone to be singing unmuted because it overrides the piano. If you are singing unmuted, the Host might mute you.

Roles:

Meeting Leader (also know as Care of Worship)

  • Opens and closes the meeting
  • Says when we’re doing what
  • Handles announcements and calling on people as needed

Host (also known as Zoom Support):

  • Serves as Zoom Host
  • Let’s people enter the Meeting
  • Handles muting and unmuting people as needed
  • Activates and de-activates break-out rooms as needed (such as children having a meeting in another “room”)
  • Shares and un-shares words to hymns at appropriate times (someone needs to share a words-to-hymns document with the Host in advance).

Uneasy about Zoom?

Before joining our Zoom Meeting you can do a test Zoom Meeting here: https://tinyurl.com/y3p2v4db. Also at this website are answers to many questions about Zoom. If you have additional questions or troubles, please contact Craig@Freshley.com.

“What If the Virus Is Medicine?” by Craig Freshley

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Message given at Durham Friends Meeting, March 22, 2020

Go here for an audio version and a song. Read on for a written version.

Well, I had a different message planned. It was gonna be really great, by the way. It has stories and quotes. I was even gonna play a song for you at the end. The message came to me a month ago. I called Martha and said, “I got one for ya!”

That was a month ago. That message was not about coronavirus.

I tried to hang onto that message. I told myself, “Well that’s okay. I’ll start this morning by telling everyone that this message is not about coronavirus. I’m gonna give you all a break and take you to a different place.”

But a new message has come to me. It’s about coronavirus. This is the place where we are.

As I struggled with, you know, what message to give – still hanging onto the old – I realized that the things I have to say about coronavirus are things that might be hard to say or even impossible to say a few weeks from now. The time is now.

As Quakers we’re supposed to be open, and proceed as way opens. I’m trying to do that.

And I am going to tack on a little song at the end. I love singing in this place and I think you might like it. Okay ready? I hope so. Let’s hold on.

What if the virus is medicine? What if the virus helps and heals, rather than hurts and harms.

Imagine a little chat between the Mistress of the Universe and the Master of the Universe. Reading the morning paper back in November 2019.

You know? Earth is in trouble?

I know! Those people are going to burn the place up?

Think we should do something?

I don’t know, maybe?

Like what? What would we do?

I don’t know. Something, something that slows them down for gods sake.

Right, and maybe…maybe it should start small and slow and give them plenty of time to adapt.

Right yeah, but it needs to be something that has real impact. You know, give nature a serious break.

Oh yeah, totally. We should do something.

Hmm. Want to try the old plant a microbe trick? We could start with just one microbe in one person.

That might work.

Well you do it this time.

No you do it.

No you.

Okay, okay maybe I can get to it next week. Right, well this will be interesting.

Pass the toast.

This is a provocative conversation, I know. The idea that God is intervening to save the earth. The idea that God is intentionally curtailing a specific species to save the earth.

I’m simply offering a different point of view. Looking at this from a different perspective. My little “Mr. and Mrs. Universe” conversation; I don’t mean to make light of this crisis. It is going to get bad. This is going to have real implications for real people. People are going to get sick and people are going to die. And when that starts happening it would have been way harder to bring this message. It is easier to talk at a high level before stuff gets real on the ground.

So let’s talk. What if the virus is medicine?

Some good things are happening. I heard that in the Wuhan Province, where the virus started, people are seeing blue skies for the first time. Some people there have never seen blue skies in their whole lifetime. People are hearing songbirds for the first time. For some people, the first time hearing a bird in their whole lifetime.

The great global industrial machine that scoops up natural resources and spits out pollution is being slowed down. Grinding to a halt in some places. Nature is being given a chance to recover, to heal.

When I look out the window of my house, I see  people out walking more than ever before. I bet that we are all seeing that. Carol and I have noticed a fox hunting in the field. We have time to notice. It is kind of fun, the fox tends to show up about 6 o’clock every night. We’ve gotten to calling it Fox News! It’s way better than the other Fox News.

Fishing season usually opens April first, but have you heard that our governor changed the rule? She’s encouraging us to go fishing now. Do what Mainers do and get out on the water.

I saw two photographs on Facebook, side by side, maybe you have seen this too? The parking lot at Wolfe’s Neck State Park in Freeport: full. The parking lot at L.L.Bean in Freeport: empty.

Isn’t this the world that some of us have been hoping for?

I’m simply offering another way to look at it. Another perspective. In my work, and running Make Shift Coffee Houses- you know I have learned that there is always another perspective. Always another valid perspective. You could say that is it just a matter of perspective.

And a matter of values. It’s really a classic dichotomy, one of the great yin yangs of our existence: “me first” or “we first?” Do I want to help me? (Hoard toilet paper) Or do I want to help my community? (Give toilet paper.) Do I want to help my business? Or do I want to help the economy for everyone?

These questions go on. Do I want my race to thrive? Or do I want my species to thrive? How big is the perspective? When we ask that question, “me first” or “we first”, how big is the me? How big is the we? Do I want my species to thrive, or do I want the world ecosystem, mother earth to thrive?

These are not simple choices, and it’s never just one thing or the other. And, I change my answers depending on a situation, depending on what answers I find within. Sometimes, I’m all about “me first”. Sometimes I’m all about my neighborhood first, my people first. Sometimes I’m all about “we first;” I’m all about my community, my earth community.

I’m not bringing you an answer. I’m bringing you a question: What if the virus is medicine? This is our Quaker tradition, to bring questions and encourage you to look within for the answers. Honestly, I was afraid to bring you this question. So many of us are dealing with so many hard questions right now. And here’s another one! My thinking is, that if you and I can get even a smidge of clarity on this question, it might help with some other questions.

As Quakers we try to be always open to other views, always open to questions, and are led to proceed as way opens.

Durham Monthly Meeting Minutes, March 15, 2020

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DURHAM MONTHLY MEETING OF FRIENDS
March 15, 2020

Durham Monthly Meeting of Friends met, with 16 people present, on Sunday,
March 15, 2020, for a single item of business.

Monthly Meeting approved giving authority to Ministry and Counsel to make decisions for Monthly Meeting as the meeting finds its way through the current coronavirus crisis. As events are unfolding rapidly, and the meeting will need to adjust to weekly “new realities,” it was agreed to give the lead to Ministry and Counsel to guide us through these times.

What is Durham Friends Meeting Doing About Coronavirus? — a message from Ministry and Counsel

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UPDATE 3/19/20: Sunday Worship will be conducted via ZOOM until further notice.

Meeting link:     https://zoom.us/j/2814426094      Click here to join by video and audio
Phone number:     +1 301 715 8592    Dial this to join by audio only
Meeting ID:    281 442 6094  

You will also need a password that has been sent via e-mail. If you don’t have it, ask another member of the Meeting.

Together with every other organization and community across the globe, Durham Friends Meeting is faced with questions about what to do with the threat of possible Coronavirus infection in our midst.  Some of the answers will have to be made together, and others are for each individual or family to answer on their own.

We are a worship community.  Gathering together is what we do.  We gather for worship, for prayer, for study, for support, for fellowship and for fun.  In normal times, we gather strength from gathering together.  But in the current situation, we may do each other harm. 

The situation is likely to change.  We’ll be learning more about the risks and best approaches.  We expect that the current situation will last at least until the end of May.  Members of Ministry and Counsel, together with the Clerk, will monitor the situation and make decisions.  We’ll send out information on e-mail, and we’ll try to see that those who do not receive e-mail receive phone calls. 

For the present, here is how we will proceed. 

  • We will have 1st Day Worship each Sunday as regularly scheduled.  Please attend via Zoom.  As always, someone from Ministry and Counsel will be responsible for Care of Worship.  There will be a prepared message most Sundays. And someone will provide tech support for our use of Zoom.

Various committees of the Meeting are gathering using Zoom, but all other events have been cancelled.

We need to care for one another.  Please stay in touch by phone, e-mail and other means.  By all means ask questions of M&C if you have them, and we will try to answer them or point you to someone who can. 

With God’s love and strength, and with support from one another, we will get through this.

Martha Hinshaw Sheldon, Co-Clerk of the Meeting

Sukie Rice, Co-Clerk of the Meeting

Doug Bennett              Tess Hartford

Renee Cote                 Joyce Gibson

Brown Lethem            Wendy Schlotterbeck

Ways That the Climate Crisis and Militarism Are Intertwined

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From Peace and Social Concerns Committee:

War and militarism are destroying the planet. But if we de-fund the Pentagon, we can save it.
Excerpts taken from a piece written by Medea Benjamin for Foreign Policy in Focus. For the full text go here.

  1. The U.S. military protects Big Oil and other extractive industries. For example, the 1991 Gulf War against Iraq was a blatant example of war for oil. Today, U.S. military support for Saudi Arabia is connected to the fossil fuel industry’s determination to control access to the world’s oil.
  2. The Pentagon is the single largest institutional consumer of fossil fuels in the world. If the Pentagon were a country, its fuel use alone would make it the 47th largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world, greater than entire nations such as Sweden, Norway, or Finland. U.S.
    military emissions come mainly from fueling weapons and equipment, as well as lighting, heating, and cooling more than 560,000 buildings around the world.
  3. The Pentagon monopolizes the funding we need to seriously address the climate crisis. We are now spending over half of the federal government’s annual discretionary budget on the military when the biggest threat to U.S. national security is not Iran or China, but the climate crisis. We could cut the Pentagon’s current budget in half and still be left with a bigger military budget than China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea combined.
  4. Military operations leave a toxic legacy in their wake. U.S. military bases despoil the landscape, pollute the soil, and contaminate the drinking water. According to a 2017 government report, the Pentagon has already spent $11.5 billion on environmental cleanup of
    closed bases and estimates $3.4 billion more will be needed.
  5. Wars ravage fragile ecosystems that are crucial to sustaining human health and climate resiliency. Direct warfare inherently involves the destruction of the environment, through bombings and boots-on-the-ground invasions that destroy the land and infrastructure.
  6. Climate change is a “threat multiplier” that makes already dangerous social and political situations even worse. In Syria, the worst drought in 500 years led to crop failures that pushed farmers into cities, exacerbating the unemployment and political unrest that contributed to the uprising in 2011. Similar climate crises have triggered conflicts in other countries across the Middle East, from Yemen to Libya.

Woman’s Society Report, February 17, 2020

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On February 17, 2020 five women met in the home of Theresa Oleksiw. Cards of friendship and well wishes were signed and a prayer request for Getry Agigh was made. Getry works in the Alternative for Violence program in Kenya and braves many dangerous situations. Meals for the Tedford Shelter were organized.

Margaret Wentworth read from the 2019/2020 Blueprints, Finding the Way by Margaret Musalia, who lives in Kenya, is “retired but not tired,” and practices pastoral ministry. She offered a lot of sage advice, including “Don’t give up, God has plans for you,” “Be willing to do God’s will,” and “Never compare your blessings, you are unique.” We were reminded that comparison is the thief of joy.

Nancy Marstaller, treasurer, reported that we now have savings of $1,519.93, with $690 set aside for two of our members (Dorothy Curtis and Martha Hinshaw Sheldon) who will be going to the USFWI Triennial in Kenya this summer. It was noted that $1,470 has been donated to Woman’s Society in memory of Clarabel Marstaller. It was also agreed that we would ask Durham Monthly Meeting to give $600 for both Martha and Dorothy’s registration and related costs.

Refreshments were enjoyed by all, including Gene Boyington, who joined in the rollicking conversation. It was noted, with due seriousness, that duct tape is always useful — “if you can’t duct it, chuck it.”

Respectfully submitted by Theresa Oleksiw

“Should We Leave Politics at the Door of the Meeting Room?” by Doug Bennett

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excerpt from a message given at Durham Friends Meeting, March 8, 2020

Should we keep politics out of Meeting?  Is it something we should leave outside, for another day and another place? 

I think we certainly have to acknowledge that Jesus was a political figure.  He was “born a king” in a land that already thought it had a different king.  And he was executed for treason, for claiming to be a king.  (Crucifixion was reserved for punishing treason.)  In between he advocated all manner of things that run against the policies of the current government.  How can I follow Jesus and exclude politics from this room?

So what to do?  I’m still thinking in terms of what do I lay down when I come into this room, and what do I pick up and carry away from it.

When I come into this room, I have to lay down everything, and that includes all my worldly allegiances and commitments.  As Paul says in Galatians (3:28), “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”  Nor is there Red Sox or Yankee.  When I come into this room, I’m not a Democrat.  I’m not for Bernie or Joe or Elizabeth.  I have to lay down my slogans. I have to even lay down my certainties about gun control, climate change and a woman’s right to choose.  They may still be there waiting for me to pick them up when Meeting is over, but for the moment I have to lay them down. 

I’m only with God.  No, that’s not right.  I’m also with all of you.  We’re all sharing in the work of helping each other settle deeply into worship.  We’re making each other welcome.  We’re looking at each other expectantly.  Perhaps you, or you, or you, will be who channels the voice of God today.  I’m not dismissing anyone because of their politics.

We’re making a place for God, and that means we need to be tender with each other. 

On the other hand, what do I take from this room? 

I have to expect that what I hear in this room, what I take in, will make a difference in every aspect of my life.  It will shape my politics.  It is here in worship that my most basic commitments are forged, and sometimes re-forged.  I have to expect that this is possible.

I have to carry the commitments formed in worship out of this room and let them influence everything I do.  My personal relationships.  My finances.  Everything.  Even my politics. 

Quakers sometimes say, “Let your life speak.”  That goes for politics as well as for everything else.  But it’s what we carry out of worship that lets our lives speak, it’s not what we smuggle into worship. 

The entire message can be found at Riverview Friend