The June 2025 Durham Friends Meeting Newsletter is HERE.
NEYM Event, June 21: Meeting for Listening – The Spiritual Life in Our Local Meetings
[Updated 25.6.10] NOTE from Fritz Weiss, Falmouth Quarter co-clerk: We will be hosting a “local cluster” at Portland Friends Meeting for the Meeting for Healing event described below. We will be zooming into the event together starting at 9:00AM. Please let Heather Denkmire know if you plan to attend for all or part of this event by replying to this email.
This event does coincide with Portland Pride – the parade will be starting around 1:00, so Friends may choose to come to the local cluster for the morning. For Falmouth Quarter. Love Fritz
Meeting for Listening: The Spiritual Life in Our Local Meetings, A full day, hybrid event, Saturday, June 21, 2025
Friends are most in the Spirit when they stand at the crossing point of the inward and outward life. And that is the intersection at which we find community. a place where the connections felt in the heart make themselves known in bonds between people, and where the tuggings and pullings of those bonds keep opening our hearts. (Parker Palmer, A Place Called Community, Pendle Hill Pamphlet #212, 1977)
Join us for a gathering of Friends in New England caring for the nurture of spiritual life and ministry in our local faith communities. Together, we will:
· Dream together
· Identify the resources meetings have to offer each other
· Explore themes in State of Society reports and trends from statistical reports
· Discover what’s possible now
Our Yearly Meeting’s primary purpose is to support monthly meetings, to be a vehicle to share resources and experiences among and between us in order to better understand our life in the Spirit and to be able to listen more closely to the Teacher. With that in mind, we began holding an annual “Meeting for Listening.”
Last year, there was a strong sense of deep sharing, of drawing together. We left the day having heard about our unique challenges. We also shared the many places we face common obstacles and celebrate common joys.
Our next “Meeting for Listening” is scheduled for June 21, 2025. It will be a full-day, hybrid gathering where Friends can gather in different ways: on site at Hartford (CT) Meeting, in self-organized local clusters connected via Zoom, or individually via Zoom.
We gather to share with each other—to reflect on where Spirit is alive in our local worshiping communities. These insights and reflections will both inform programmatic planning in the year ahead and our annual Funding Priorities.
This year, we will focus on how meetings across our region are leaning into community. Participants will have the opportunity to explore three themes related to this leaning in:
· Renewal, including welcoming and integrating new attenders and new perspectives, religious education, and visibility in our local communities
· Loss, including smaller numbers, leadership changes, aging membership, and the resulting need to rethink care for buildings, resources, and meeting functions
· “These times,” including the spiritual condition of Friends in relation to the world, witness and engagement, discerning individual and corporate leadings, and the role of eldership.
Registration is now open. Whether you plan to participate via Zoom or gather with others, you can register for this free-of-charge event at neym.org/Meeting-for-Listening. If you plan to attend on site in Hartford, please register by June 12th if you can. This will help us comfortably accommodate everyone.
Are you led to host a local cluster in your area? If rather than traveling to Hartford, you are interested in inviting area Friends (for example, your Quarter) to gather at your meeting’s location in a regional cluster to participate in the gathering together, connected via a shared device or system, we would love to support you in doing so, as much as we are able. Contact us (mc-clerk@neym.org and Nia@neym.org) to begin a conversation.
Looking forward in faith, Carl Williams, Ministry and Counsel Clerk, Nia Thomas, Program Director
Important Wabanaki Legislation, 132st Legislature, Spring 2025
Peace and Social Concerns Committee calls to the Meeting’s attention bills before the Maine legislature that are of particular importance to the Wabanaki Alliance.
The following information, and more, can be found on the Wabanaki Alliance Bill Tracker website at https://www.wabanakialliance.com/legislative-bill-tracker/
To find your legislators go to www.maine.gov and type voter lookup into the search bar. Select Government: eDemocracy: Voter Information Lookup and enter the name of your town.
Important Wabanaki Legislation
132st Legislature
Updated May 23, 2025/Updated March 28, 2025/ Originally posted February 18, 2025
Important Wabanaki Legislation 132st Legislature February 18, 2025
The following information, and more, can be found on the Wabanaki Alliance Bill Tracker website at https://www.wabanakialliance.com/legislative-bill-tracker/
To support these bills contact your legislators. You can find them by going to www.maine.gov and type voter lookup into the search bar. Select Government: eDemocracy: Voter Information Lookup and enter the name of your town.
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LD 14, An Act to Provide Indigenous Peoples Free Access to State Parks
Sponsor: Sen. Craig Hickman (D-Kennebec)
The Wabanaki Alliance supports this bill. Read our testimony >> SUMMARY
This bill provides that a citizen of a federally recognized Indian nation, tribe or band in Maine is not required to pay a fee for admission to any state-owned park, historic site, camping area or beach managed by the State. The bill also specifies that to qualify for free admission, a person is required to present a qualifying tribal identification, as approved by the respective tribal government, to the park attendant or other designee of the Director of the Bureau of Parks and Lands within the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry. Read the complete bill text»
The Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry held a public hearing March 11 (read the public testimony) and a work session March 18. The committee voted that the bill Ought to Pass.
⚠STATUS: Passed initial votes in House and Senate!
The bill passed “under the hammer” (no roll call) in the Senate and passed the House 121-18 (see how your representative voted). The bill will undergo more procedural votes next.
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LD 958, An Act to Prohibit Eminent Domain on Tribal Lands
Sponsor: House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham (R-Winter Harbor)
The Wabanaki Alliance supports this bill. Read our testimony >> SUMMARY
This bipartisan bill amends the 1980 Maine Indian Claims Settlement
Implementing Act and the 2023 Mi’kmaq Nation Restoration Act to prevent the state from taking Wabanaki land for public uses, often referred to as “the right of eminent domain.” This would apply to land located within Passamaquoddy Tribe territory, Penobscot Nation territory, Houlton Band Trust Land and the Mi’kmaq Nation Trust Land. By removing language that gives the state eminent domain power over tribal lands, LD 958 restores a fundamental principle that the Wabanaki Nations are sovereign governments with inherent power to regulate their territories. In committee, the bill was amended to stipulate that legislation would apply only to trust lands. Read the full bill text >>
Learn more in our Take Action Post on LD 958.
⚠STATUS: Committee voted OTP; Full Legislature will vote soon.
The Committee on Judiciary held a public hearing April 4 (read the public testimony). Committee members introduced an amendment that stipulates the legislation would apply only to trust lands. The committee voted 10-4 that the bill Ought to Pass as amended. It now goes to the full Legislature for a vote.
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LD 1474, An Act to Strengthen the Teaching of Wabanaki Studies in Maine Schools
Sponsor: Rep. Laurie Osher (D-Orono)
The Wabanaki Alliance supports this bill.
SUMMARY
This bill creates the position of Wabanaki Studies Specialist within the Maine Department of Education to oversee compliance with the 2001 Wabanaki Studies Law, which requires the inclusion of Wabanaki history, economic and political systems, and culture in the curricula of all public K-12 schools. According to
a 2022 report by the Wabanaki Alliance, the Maine Indian Tribal-State Commission, ACLU of Maine, and the Abbe Museum, most school districts in the state have largely ignored the law since it was enacted, which prompted the introduction of this legislation. LD 1474 requires ongoing funding for the Wabanaki Studies Specialist and for contracted Wabanaki advisors to advance the implementation of Wabanaki studies across the state. LD 1474 also directs the state Board of Education to require completion of a Wabanaki studies component within teacher certification requirements and ensures funding is available to hire Wabanaki advisors and educators who would help the Wabanaki studies specialist create short-term courses that would be available to all Maine teachers. A similar bill (which also included additional provisions related to African American Studies) was approved by the 131st Legislature but died on the appropriations table last spring along with dozens of other unfunded bills. Read the full text of LD 1474>>
Learn more in our Take Action Post on LD 1474.
STATUS: Voted OTP by the committee; full Legislature will vote soon. The Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs held a public hearing April 22 (read the public testimony). The committee held two work sessions and the majority voted (7-6) that the bill Ought to Pass. It goes to the full Legislature for a vote next.
Woman’s Society Meeting Minutes, May 19, 2025
Durham Friends Woman’s Society Meeting Minutes 5.19.2025 Hybrid Meeting
Present: Dorothy Curtis, President, Nancy Marstaller, Treasurer, Susan Gilbert, Secretary, Joyce Gibson, Kim Bolshaw.
Cards: For Friends.
Program and Devotions: We took turns reading from Blueprints, “Story About My Experience – God Still Speaks” by Dr. Gladys Bunyasi of Kenya. Scripture – Psalm 46:10. Dr. Bunyasi’s son began experiencing convulsions and was diagnosed with epilepsy which did not respond well to medication. It was discovered that the boy was being bullied at school. The medication was stopped, and with prayer and faith, the convulsions ceased. Dr Bunyasi believes that through the miracle of her son’s recovery and his continuing successful life, God has spoken to her family.
Treasurer’s Report: We have $105.58 in the account. Nancy will send $55. gained from the sale of Martha Sheldon’s knitted hats to New Beginnings. We decided that of this years’ plant sale proceeds, half will go to the Good Shepherd Food Bank, the rest to scholarships at Ramallah School and school fees for girls in Kenya.
Minutes: Susan read the 4.21.2025 minutes.
Tedford Meal: Team A will prepare the June 2 dinner. Kim Bolshaw is contact person (207) 808-3007. Durham Friends provide dinner for Tedford House on the first Monday of each month. Contributions of prepared food or money for the Team to buy food for Tedford are always welcome.
Next Meeting: Monday, June 16 at 7 PM.
Other Business: Our annual plant sale has been set up and we made our first sale! It will continue for 2-3 weeks, unless we run out of plants more quickly. Feel free at any time during the sale to bring perennials or seedlings you can donate and label them. There are pots available in the horse shed if you need any. PROCEEDS: Plan to peruse the plants for something you might like. As usual, we will ask for donations, which will be used to support charitable work. Any questions? Check with Dorothy Curtis, Kim Bolshaw, or Nancy Marstaller.
Thanks for all your help and support!
Dorothy closed the meeting with this poem:
Spring Has Come!
Crocuses and buttercups
Are peeping through the sod;
And rows of bluest hyacinths
And beds of pansies nod.
The trees are dressed in fleecy green,
And some in pink and white;
The winter’s gone, and all the buds
Burst forth to our delight.
We thank God for the cheerful spring,
For sunshine and for showers,
For birds that sing their gleeful songs,
And outdoor playtime hours.
Respectfully Submitted, Susan Gilbert
Durham Friends Meeting Minutes, May 18, 2025
Durham Monthly Meeting of Friends Minutes, May 18, 2025, DRAFT2
Durham Monthly Meeting of Friends met for the conduct of business on Sunday, May 18, 2025, with eleven people in attendance at the Meetinghouse and five by Zoom.
1. Meeting Opening
Clerk, Sarah Sprogell, opened the meeting with the following: “Words of Blessing to You in your Service.” (From a New England Yearly Meeting postcard.)
May you remember that you are never alone.
Invite help. Invite accompaniment.
You have everything that is needed at this moment in time and in this place.
May you find the courage to give yourself over to service. Let service shape your life. Though the burden may, at times, feel heavy, the blessings are great.
May you feel the joy of service you graciously take on.
May you be bold and humble.
May you remember that you have been called.
May you receive as much as you give and give as much as you receive.
May you feel trustful of Friends and fell their trust in you, as well.
2. Approval of Minutes of April 2025
Meeting approved the April minutes.
Martha Hinshaw Sheldon offered this update to the minutes. She announced, with regret, that she will not be traveling to Tel Aviv this coming summer due to airline challenges that could not be overcome.
3. Finance Report — Nancy Marstaller
Please refer to the finance report.
With respect to quarterly income balances, note that a CD, having accrued interest over a few years, was cashed in and resulted in the accumulated interest being recorded. The total was put in the Meeting’s pooled fund. In addition, a grant from the Obadiah Brown Benevolent Fund added to increased revenue for this quarter.
Expenses are all as anticipated. Note that some regular operating expenses have increased this year, e.g., electricity costs. These increases will be noted in preparing budgets for next year.
Maker Cafe has spent $539 after hosting 6 events, leaving seed money for the rest of the year. Note that after having covered the costs for the most recent travel to Cuba, the Sister Meeting account has funds remaining as a result of several generous donations.
The meeting accepted the report with gratitude.
4. Peace and Social Concerns — Ingrid Chalufour
An extremely positive event that focused on Wabanki studies among teachers, presenters, and others was held at Kate Furbish Elementary School.
Another initiative is underway to provide ongoing support for teachers who want to incorporate Wabanki studies in their classrooms, K-12.
UU Church in Brunswick held a Working for Justice Community Partners event at which Social Justice Book project was shared at the Indigenous Awareness table.
The Meeting accepted the report, with gratitude.
5. Trustees — Sarah Sprogell.
No written report. A small but hearty group gathered for clean-up day on Saturday.
6. Meeting Care Coordinator Report:
Report is attached. The Meeting Care Coordinator received an inquiry about participating in the Gay Pride celebration on June 14th and asked whether or not to join with the Interfaith Council of churches. This seemed like a good idea given that the date is also the date for “No Kings” protests across the country, which might draw people in other directions.
6. Seasoned Item: Vestry/Fellowship Room — Sarah Sprogell
Ad Hoc work group to be formed to continue thinking about and working on the Vestry. Tess Hartford and Ellen Bennett volunteered. Renee Cote also offered to help with the doing.
Remember that October 5 is Meeting-wide birthday celebration, so it’s important to leave calendar space on either side to prepare for that event.
7. Report from Falmouth Quarter Called Meeting — Sarah Sprogell
Please see the minutes from the Called Meeting.
The subject of the Called Meeting was to consider the purpose, format and length of Annual Sessions in future years, and to discuss concerns that have arisen around Yearly Meeting sessions being held this summer on the campus of UMass, Amherst. Rich discussion ensued about many things, e.g., protests on college campuses, needs on the part of Yearly Meeting in scheduling and building sessions, and what witness on the campus of UMass might look like.
Letters from Yearly Meeting Clerk and rising Clerk addressing this will be included on the Durham Friends website, alongside material included for the Falmouth Quarter Called Meeting. Please look for all of the documentation related to this issue on the website.
NEYM is facing financial strain, with Yearly Meeting sessions taking up a large part of their operational funds. Meeting is asked to consider how we might be led as a Meeting as we approach the work of the Yearly Meeting, and our role in it.
8. Request from Brunswick Meeting — Sarah Sprogrell
Brunswick Meeting is no longer able to meet at Curtis Library this summer, and perhaps beyond. They are looking for a space, and they asked if they might share our Meetinghouse.
The sense of the Meeting was that we would be delighted to share our space. Observations and suggestions were shared. No decision needs to be made at this time; discussions are ongoing, and we are one of the options Brunswick Meeting is considering.
9. Margaret De Rivera Transfer Request — Sarah Sprogell
Margaret De Rivera is contacting Narramissic Valley Monthly Meeting to request a transfer of her membership to Durham Friends Meeting. The request will go through Ministry and Counsel and an ensuing welcoming committee will be formed.
10. Newton, NJ Meeting correspondence — Doug Bennett
Correspondence received from Newton Friends Meeting, which is located in the middle of Camden, NJ. They currently use a school building as their meeting space, and have a meetinghouse that was built in 182? They are seeking funds to save and restore the Meetinghouse for continuing use as a community center. It was proposed that we send $100 to honor both our birthday as well as their history and good efforts. A second proposal was that we send $250, one dollar for every year of our Meeting, which was heartily endorsed. This request will be seasoned and will return at next month’s Meeting for Business.
11. Other business
Still looking for people to fill out standing committees including M&C, Library, and Finance. Joyce Gibson agreed to rejoin M&C. We heartily approve!
Linden Jenkins is speaking tonight on her time is Israel and Palestine, on Zoom, and you have to register at NEYM.org events. 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.
12. Closing
Clerk asked Meeting attenders to resettle and appreciate the work of this gathered group.
Respectfully submitted, Ellen Bennett, Recording Clerk
NEYM Materials re: Sessions and Israel Palestine
Regarding the matters discussed (materials HERE and minutes HERE) at the called meeting of Falmouth Quarter on May 6, 2025 concerning the scheduling of Annual Sessions and also concerning Israel-Palestine matters, two letters have been received from Northampton Meeting and Mt. Toby Meeting. They are below:
In addition, those interested in reading what New England Yearly Meeting has discussed and minuted in recent years regarding Israel-Palestine please see the materials collected HERE on the NEYM website.
“This Day — Ordinary or Special?” by Doug Bennett
Message given at Durham Friends Meeting, May 18, 2025
Is this an ordinary day or a special day? Look at all the amazing flowering things all around us today. But it happens every spring. Ordinary or special?
One day follows another and another, and soon you have quite a number of days
Today, we are on day 90,899 since the citizens of this country declared us a new country, founded in the rule of law and “conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal,” as Lincoln put it; or “that all men and women are created equal” as those gathered at the Women’s Rights also in Seneca Falls in 1848 better voiced it. That was our hope, a special hope. Is it not a special day, each day, when we remember and celebrate that hope? But here we are today, and, if we’re thinking politically, today is probably not a day for celebration or high hopes.
Today, we are on day 119 of the second presidency of Donald Trump. Imagining himself like Zeus with lightning bolts, he has sent forth decree after decree that try to overturn so many familiar ways of doing things. We have corruption in abundance: meme coins and Qatari 747s and stock market manipulation via tariffs relentlessly in the news. We have daily threats to the rule of law. We have attacks on the poor and the vulnerable. We have trashing of the Constitution’s clear meaning. (Of course, those are simply my opinions.)
Politically, it’s an unusual day, perhaps a special day. Some, I suppose, are jubilant, though I know very few. Most of those around me are in despair; others in doubt. Many are angry about this wrecking but unsure what to do.
That’s politically. If we’re thinking geologically, I don’t think this is a special day. Today the earth is about 4.54 billion years old. That’s about 1.64 trillion days. Born in an explosion, in fire, rotating in cold, cold space, it is amazing that the center of the earth is still molten lava – liquid rock – that can burst out unexpectedly and change the face of the earth.
Are we, too, not like that: crusty of the outside, but molten inside: formed into a shape and yet capable of being made new again? Today, like nearly all days, we’ll probably have 55 earthquakes somewhere on the planet. Special, I suppose for those who live near them and feel them, but pretty ordinary for most of us. That’s just the way it is every day on this third rock from the Sun.
What if we think religiously? Not politically, not geologically, but religiously.
Today we are in year 2025, day 138 since the birth of birth of Christ. This is how we count days: B.C. and A.D., Anno Domini, or C.E. – the Common Era. We’ve kept our dates this way since the 4th century A.D. (Before that, if you’re curious, we counted days since the beginning of the reign of the Emperor Diocletian, the Roman emperor who instigated the last major persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire, the Era of the Martyrs.)
Counting days since the birth of Christ is a constant reminder that we think something very important – something special – happened in this world when Jesus was born. We came into a new relationship with God, one founded in loving our neighbors and in the belief that our sins could be forgiven.
Today we are about 91,250 days into a continuous presence of Quaker worship here in Durham, Maine – about a year of days longer than the continuous presence of our republic among the countries of this fractious but wonderous world. Is this day at Durham Friends an ordinary day, or a special day? That’s my question this morning.
Today, we are 28 days since Pope Francis passed away. Already we have a new Pope, Leo XIV, the 267th Pope. We’re still learning about him. Popes are not Quaker officers, but they sometimes teach us.
Andrew Sullivan said of this past Pope: “Faith for Francis was not rigidity, it was not always certain, and it was not words. It was a way of life, of giving, of loving, of emptying oneself to listen to God without trying to force a conclusion — of discernment, as the Jesuits like to say.” (Or he might have said, ‘as the Quakers like to say.’) Here is Pope Francis’s account of how he came to accept his election to the Papacy.
Before I accepted I asked if I could spend a few minutes in the room next to the one with the balcony overlooking the square. My head was completely empty and I was seized by a great anxiety. To make it go away and relax I closed my eyes and made every thought disappear … I closed my eyes and I no longer had any anxiety or emotion. At a certain point I was filled with a great light. It lasted a moment, but to me it seemed very long. Then the light faded, I got up suddenly and walked into the room where the cardinals were waiting and the table on which was the act of acceptance. I signed it.
That’s a story with which many Quakers can resonate – a story of a special expressive moment. Emotions. Settling into silence, emptying out. An experience of the Light. And then a clear leading to action. We mourn his death; we celebrate his life.
Today, we are at the fourth Sunday of Easter, on our way to Pentecost on June 8. In liturgical time, Jesus has been crucified and buried. The disciples are anxious and in disarray. (The same can be said of us.) Jesus’s body has disappeared from the tomb; many are unsure what to make of this. On Pentecost, the Holy Spirit will descend upon these disciples assuring them – us — of the resurrection. They will go forth in confidence to preach the gospel. Today, we are in a time of mourning, of doubt and despair. But we can have faith the Light will come, and with it, clarity. Each year we go through this same cycle: Lent, Good Friday, Easter, Pentecost. It is an essential understanding of the human condition.
Lent, Good Friday, Easter, Pentecost: in the liturgical calendar of most Christian churches, we are in a special time of the year. We will not be back in “ordinary time” until June 9, the day after Pentecost.
Quakers have long resisted this way of thinking about days, ordinary time and special time. For Quakers, all days are special days; or (it comes to the same thing) all days are ordinary days. So much have Quakers believed this that Quaker schools used to hold classes on Christmas and Easter.
Today: is this an ordinary day, or a special day? It may seem to all of us that this is an unusual time, one with new threats and new dangers. Surely, we have those threats and dangers, but do these make this a special day?
What are we called to do this day?
- What are we called to do this day on a billions-of-years-old earth that still has a molten core, capable of remaking itself every day?
- What are we called to do this day when we are thousands of years past the birth of Jesus, past his crucifixion and past his resurrection?
- What are we called to do this day, hundreds of years into the beginning of Quaker worship here in this place, and roughly the same length of time into the birth of this nation?
- What are we called to do when we are noticing two contemporary professed Christians, one of whom washed the feet of the poor and outcast every day, the other of whom dishes out lies and destruction and cruelty each and every day?
What are we called to do this day? I believe that in the most profound ways, all days, our situation is the same.
There will be troubles, but we are encouraged to “fear not.”
Some wonderful things but also some terrible things may happen, but we can have faith that God loves each and every one of us.
People will do those terrible things, but we are nevertheless instructed: “to love our neighbors as ourselves,” remembering that our neighbors include everyone, even those that do not think or behave quite as we do.
We are not promised a good time or an easy time. We are promised, instead, love, grace and the forgiveness of sins. And all days — not just special days – we are instructed “to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God” (Micah 6:8).
“Preach the Gospel always. If necessary, with words,” That saying is attributed to Saint Francis of Assisi, after whom Pope Francis took his name.
I read this earlier: “Faith for Francis was … a way of life, of giving, of loving, of emptying oneself to listen to God without trying to force a conclusion — of discernment.”
With Pope Francis, filled as we are with emotions, let us close our eyes, invite the silence, allow the Light to shine over us and to point the way on this ordinary yet singular, special day. As Psalm 118 puts it, “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”
Also posted on River View Friend
Agenda and Materials for May 18, 2025 Business Meeting
AGENDA, Clerk: Sarah Sprogell
Monthly Meeting for Business – May 18, 2025, noon
Opening
Finance Report – Nancy Marstaller
P&SC Update – Ingrid Chalufour
Trustees Update on clean-up day – Sarah Sprogell
Seasoned Item – updating aspects of the Vestry/Fellowship Room
Report from Falmouth Quarter Called Meeting – Sarah Sprogell
Close
Reports and Other Materials for the Business Meeting can be found HERE.
Falmouth Quarter Minutes, Called Meeting, May 6, 2025
Minutes 5-6-25 Called Meeting
On 5/6/25, Falmouth Quarter gathered by zoom for a called meeting.
Present: Portland: Fritz Weiss (clerk), Ann Dodd-Collins, Paula Rossvall, Jim Grace, Karyl Sylken; Durham: Sarah Sprogell, Leslie Manning, Wendy Schlotterbeck, Mimi Marstaller, Doug Bennett, Kristna Evans, Susan Gilbert; Brunswick: Marian Dalton; Southern Maine: Louise Sandmeyer; Guest and prayer presence: Kathleen Wooten
The clerk reviewed the agenda.
Opening worship and land acknowledgement
- Falmouth Quarter received a letter from Susan Davies, clerk of Permanent Board (PB) reviewing the status of the discernment about the form of annual sessions. We also received the report from the visioning day hosted by the yearly meeting on 4/12 where the various groups across New England who had participated in the sessions discernment exercise gathered to consider the form of annual sessions going forward. Unity on the form of sessions for 2026 was not reached on 4/12 and the conversation would continue at the upcoming Permanent Board meeting on 5/10. Quarters were invited to attend and participate in the continuing discernment. The clerk asked for guidance from the quarter on what to bring to the PB meeting.
The quarter was clear on the following:
- Quakers in New England have not found unity on the purpose of the annual gathering at sessions, and this makes finding unity on the form or schedule impossible.
- It seems clear that there is movement towards shortening sessions from six days to a long weekend.
- Falmouth Quarter is clear that the essential experience of sessions is to gather in God’s presence, to experience being gathered together in Spirit.
- Falmouth Quarter is clear that the essential work of sessions is the spiritual discernment of business meeting, seeking unity on what is required of us.
- We are comfortable moving other activities (e.g workshops, committee meetings, coffee house ) away from sessions to other times.
- We are not certain that a long weekend will be sufficient to accomplish the experience of being gathered.
- We have experienced repeated instances of agenda items being sent to Quarters for seasoning and we are not certain that this has worked.
- If the YM is committed to strengthen quarters, there will need to be a commitment of time and attention to this project and an examination of how regional or interim meetings align with the life of quarters.
2. Falmouth Quarter has received a letter from North East Kingdom Monthly Meeting (NEK), with many links and attachments sharing NEK’s deep concern that it was not right to gather at UMass campus in light of the university’s forceful suppression of an encampment in support of Palestinian rights and in protest of the war in Gaza. The YM was not able to change to location of sessions, consequently NEK has declared a jubilee year and will not participate in NEYM or financially support NEYM for the coming year. NEK welcomed any thoughts we had to share.
We also received a link to the independent review of the university’s actions, and a summary from the presiding clerk of NEYM of the YM response to NEK.
The discussion was serious and wide ranging. The clerk was directed to write a letter to NEK sharing the following observations:
- We are grateful for their long faithful witness and thank them for bringing their concern about holding sessions at UMass to our attention. We agree that it is important that our vision and our mission be aligned with our actions.
- We hear the deep concern that they have for the situation in Palestine and know that NEK Monthly meeting has carried this concern faithfully for many years. It is clear that they came to the decision they came to with great care and also with great grief.
- We will miss having their voice at sessions. We need their voice at session and it pains us that they will not be there. We, as the Quakers of New England gathered together this summer will be diminished by their absence.
- The situation at Gaza is awful, worse now than it was last March, worse now than it was in January when NEK came to their decision. We are heartbroken by what is happening in Gaza and by the complicity of our government in supporting the actions of the Israeli Government and that is where our attention needs to be focused.
- We are concerned about a pattern of conflict which we have seen repeatedly in NEYM where, when there is no agreement, we withdraw our presence and support. This is a pattern which makes it easier for those involved in the conflict but does not move us towards the third way.
3. The clerk was also directed to write a letter to the presiding clerk in response to the letter we received with the following concerns.
- In the letter from NEK, it is clear that this meeting has been experiencing frustration with NEYM over other issues over time, and that their decision to take a year’s sabbatical from participating in NEYM is in part a reflection of this history. We urge the YM to do the necessary work of repairing the relationship – we are all diminished by the separation. Repairing relationships is not accomplished through negotiating agreement on actions, but by deep listening and accompaniment.
- We are concerned about a pattern of conflict which we have witnessed in the YM of withdrawing our presence and support when in conflict and unable to reach agreement. This is a pattern which makes it easier for those involved but leaves the conflict unresolved and does not move us towards the third way.
- The situation in Palestine weighs on all our hearts. It is awful, worse now than it was last March, worse now than it was in January when NEK came to their decision. We are heartbroken by what is happening in Gaza and by the complicity of our government in supporting the actions of the Israeli Government and that is where our attention needs to be focused.
- It is not enough to reference our history of responding. What is needed is wrestling with what is required of us now. We hope that in planning our time together in August, this concern is heard.
- It was also noted that UMass Amherst is a large, complicated and clumsy organization. We did not feel it was productive to focus on any disappointment we might have with UMass’s decisions or actions.
- It was noted that Mid Coast meeting in Maine has also decided to withdraw from NEYM for a year. We heard a suggestion that we reach out to Mid Coast as neighbors in hopes of remaining connected during a period of possible isolation from other Friends.
Respectfully submitted, Fritz Weiss, acting clerk.
Woman’s Society Meeting Minutes, April 21, 2025
Durham Friends Woman’s Society Meeting Minutes
4.21.2025 Zoom Meeting
Present: Dorothy Curtis, President, Susan Gilbert, Secretary, Kim Bolshaw.
Cards: To Friends.
Program and Devotions: We spent this time sharing personal stories.
Treasurer’s Report: We have $85.58 in the account.
Minutes: Susan read the 3.17.2025 minutes.
Tedford Meal: Leslie Manning’s Team F will bring the June 2 Tedford meal. Durham Friends provide dinner for Tedford House on the first Monday of each month.
Contributions of prepared food or money for the Team to buy food for Tedford are always welcome.
Other Business: *Dorothy Curtis has received the gift to our meeting of a quilt created in 1943 by Durham Friends and the local community. It was given to the Booker family who experienced loss from fire, and now has been returned by a descendent, Faye Passow. *Ann Ruthsdottir is looking for washable ribbon for her creative project making flowers. *Our annual plant sale will start in May, with set-up starting Wednesday, May 21.The official start of the sale is Sunday, May 25, and will continue 2-3 weeks, unless we run out of plants more quickly.
SETTING UP: Please bring any perennials or seedlings you can donate and label them. There are pots available in the horse shed if you need any.
PROCEEDS: Plan to peruse the plants for something you might like. As usual, we will ask for donations, which will be used to support charitable work.
Any questions? Check with Dorothy Curtis, Kim Bolshaw, or Nancy Marstaller.
Thanks for all your help and support!
Dorothy closed the meeting with this quote from Harriet Beecher Stowe:
In all ranks of life the human heart yearns for the beautiful, and the beautiful things that God makes are His gift to all alike.
Respectfully Submitted, Susan Gilbert
“More on the Rainbow Rule,” By Craig Freshley
Craig Freshley’s merssage, “More onn the Rainbow Rule,” given at Durham Friends Meeting on May 4, 2025, can be found HERE.
Falmouth Quarterly Meeting Minutes and Reports, April 27, 2025
Falmouth Quarterly Meeting, 27 April 2025, Portland Friends Meeting
Present: Brunswick: Marian Dalton, Christine Holden on zoom; Durham: Leslie Manning on zoom, Sara Sprogell, Dorothy Curtis; Portland: Fritz Weiss (co-clerk), Ann Dodd-Collins (recorder), Andy Grannell; Windham: is having Meeting for Business at this time; Visitor: Kathleen Wooten, Lawrence Meeting.
Opening worship and land acknowledgement, Fritz Weiss
We began our meeting at approximately 1:30 pm.
Fritz noted that several people from Falmouth Quarter are participating in the Journey of Peace and Friendship. He spoke about the walk on Saturday, a cold and rainy day, and the 15-18 people who made the seven mile walk, including seven from Brunswick, Durham, and Portland. The prayer service and feast on Saturday was a time of fellowship, communion, and trust. There was a wonderful sense of community, gathering in a way that is not typical for the quarterly meeting.
Land acknowledgement.
If the land acknowledgement becomes performative it loses its significance.
The land we are on is stolen. Trauma was done to the people and to the land and to the communities, some who are gone forever. That trauma continues to echo and resonate. Acknowledging that is important, but what’s really important is that this is just a small step towards committing to healing what can be healed, repair what can be repaired and being in healthier relationship with our neighbors, the land and ourselves.
State of Society reports
- Brunswick, read by Marian Dalton. Attached.
Brunswick could use some help in finding a new space.
Marian needs support in letting go; she has been clerk for 10 years. The new clerk is not going to be one who has the history so it’s going to be different.
Brunswick is doing well; they are looking forward to having an alumni potluck that specifically invites people who still live in the area but no longer come to meeting.
- Durham, read by Sarah Sprogell. Attached.
There was concern expressed that the work of one member was not mentioned, which led to a short discussion about people who have a ministry but don’t see it as such.
There was also concern expressed about pushback on the Social Justice Book Project. Planners are aware of the concern and are getting positive support from the school that is the pilot.
- Portland, read by Fritz Weiss. Attached.
One member said we are in a very different and new and unexpected place. We went through a very difficult time and some people are still hurt, but it’s a blessed time for PFM.
- Windham, read by Fritz Weiss. Attached.
Windham values the relationship with Falmouth Quarter. We are holding them in the Light. Windham values visitors. We wondered about ways we could strengthen the relationship and could know each other better.
- Southern Maine, no report.
They are a very small, much older, semi- dormant meeting. Our co-clerks do communicate with Louise.
Ministry reports
- Leslie Manning. Leslie read her report. Attached.
We are holding Leslie in the Light. She feels distinctly different calls to be a chaplain vs pastoral ministry and sees this as new territory. Leslie also asked that we hold transgender women and men and their allies in the Light. Leslie’s role as meeting care coordinator has led her to recognize different pastoral care needs.
- Craig Freshley, read by Fritz Weiss. Attached
Craig does not call his work as a ministry but as his work, both professional and volunteer. He had a care committee when he wrote his book, but does not have one now. He does feel supported by his meeting. Durham has continued to test Craig’s sense of calling.
- Martha Sheldon, no report.
Martha is going to Palestine with Max and Jane Carter this summer. Some of her most important work currently is with her family.
- Elizabeth Szatkowski, read by Fritz Weiss. Attached.
One member commented that the quarter’s denominational endorsement of Elizabeth’s work has borne powerful fruit.
- Jay O’Hara, read by Fritz Weiss. Attached.
We appreciate Jay’s honesty about how challenging it is to not know and to speak about it.
- Sally Farneth, read by Fritz Weiss. Attached.
Sally spends several hours a day online and is fully dedicated to this work.
- Maggie Fiori, no report.
Maggie is one of three friends with a travel minute to visit Meetings in Maine. She has a clear passion for bringing the sense of community she’s found in Young Friends into the larger community. She has a support committee and is being faithful.
- Heather Denkmire, no report.
Heather’s ministry is about talking to white people about white supremacy. She is facilitating two small groups focusing on the embodied experience of exploring whiteness and privilege. She has a care committee.
Kathleen Wooten, visiting Friend
Kathleen brought a travel minute which our co-clerk endorsed. She is a member of Lawrence Meeting in Salem Quarter. Salem Quarter has not met for 4 years and Kathleen misses the ability to gather and ask “Who are we and what can we do together that we cannot do alone?” She asked for prayers for the Quarter.
Kathleen recently learned about Emily Provance’s book, Spiritual Gifts, the Beloved Community, and Covenant, and is feeling a nudge to offer a book group with Vassalboro and Falmouth. We encouraged her to consider offering that book group in person for the quarter at Windham meeting and she agreed to explore this possibility.
Quote of the day: “Being faithful can be messy.”
Concrete ways we are working across meeting boundaries
We noted that in the SoS reports and ministry reports we heard of a number of ways in which we are working together as a quarter beyond the scheduled quarterly meetings. These include:
- A Meeting for Healing, held bimonthly on zoom by Durham and Portland.
- The Cuba Sister Meeting relationship, a shared partnership of Durham and Portland
- The Pink Haven initiative in which both Brunswick and Portland are involved.
- The Iliad, presented at Windham Correctional Facility and Friends School of Portland, sponsored by Falmouth Quarter
Challenges
The clerk mentioned two specific concerns before the quarter.
- The High Street worship group in Belfast crosses boundaries. It is connected to Portland because it was founded by Portland members and the care committee supporting one of the founders is in Portland, and it is geographically in Vassalboro Quarter but does not have a relationship with that Quarter.
- Falmouth Quarter needs to name the next representative to the Maine Council of Churches. The quarter coordinating team will name a small group to find a new representative.
Andy Grannell
Andy has been researching Quakers mentioned in Portland newspapers from 1775 on. Did Quakers get into the papers? Yes. At least 10 have made a world of difference. He wants to tell their stories, “Maine Quakers in the News from the Revolution to the Present”. The world needs their message and stories will stick; facts don’t. Andy is close to the end of the research process and hopes to tell both new stories and old stories in a new way.
Announcements
- Mimi Marstaller has joined Fritz Weiss and Wendy Schlotterbeck on the quarter coordinating group.
- There is an intention to convene a zoom meeting before May 10 to address two last minute items which have been forwarded to the quarter: (this has been scheduled for May 6th at 7PM)
- A letter from NE Kingdom Monthly Meeting
- A request from Permanent Board with a 5/10 deadlineClosing worship
We ended our rich, spirit-filled meeting at approximately 4:15 pm.
Maker Cafe at Durham Friends Meeting, May 15, 2025
Durham Friends Meeting Plant Sale, May 2025
May 2025 Plant Sale! hosted by the Woman’s Society
DATES: Our annual plant sale will start in May, with set-up starting Wednesday, May 21. The official start of the sale is Sunday, May 25, and will continue 2-3 weeks, unless we run out of plants more quickly.
SETTING UP: Please bring any perennials or seedlings you can donate and label them. There are pots available in the horse shed if you need any.
PROCEEDS: Plan to peruse the plants for something you might like. As usual, we will ask for donations, which will be used to support charitable work.
Any questions? Check with Dorothy Curtis, Kim Bolshaw, or Nancy Marstaller.
Thanks for all your help and support!
May 2025 Durham Friends Newsletter
Durham Friends Meeting Minutes, April 27, 2025
DRAFT
Durham Monthly Meeting of Friends Minutes, April 27, 2025
Nancy Marstaller — Recording Clerk pro tem
Durham Monthly Meeting of Friends met for the conduct of business on Sunday, April 27, 2025, with six people in attendance at the Meetinghouse and two by Zoom.
1. Meeting Opening:
Clerk Sarah Sprogell opened the meeting with a reading from A Mystic Garden by Gunilla Norris:
Soil
Sphagnum moss, compost, sand, ordinary garden soil, a little lime, perhaps, or maybe nothing- all of it needs to be turned with a fork. I turn, lift, lighten, dig, and mix.
I want the bed to be rich and mounded. I want the soil to fill the box to the brim, to bursting. We want so much all the time while our inner ground lies inert and helpless. Being so busy, busy, busy, we are completely taken up with our urgent wants. No fork can turn the inner soil.
Deep within it is dark. As I work in this lettuce box I feel an ache, a longing to be turned, to be set right. Oh, that the work of our hands and the meditations of our hearts could always be one!
What you gaze on, gazes back.
What you contemplate in faithfulness, changes you into itself.
Turning and turning you’ll come around to being
open like earth in which much can grow.
2. Meeting approved Nancy Marstaller as recording clerk for this meeting.
3. Approval of Minutes of March 2025
Meeting approved the March minutes.
4. Ministry and Counsel — Renee Cote
Renee shared their report (attached). A request for greeters has been made, as we have more visitors lately, though some worry if enough people would be willing to do this. Ingrid Chalufour volunteered to make a sign-up sheet for greeters. Also, the half-page informational sheet available in the entryway needs updating; Sarah volunteered to update that page and send it to Ministry and Counsel for review.
5. Peace and Social Concerns — Ingrid Chalufour
Ingrid shared her report (attached).
6. A proposal has been made to review the set-up of our vestry/fellowship room.
The Wabanaki posters have not been hung on the walls in deference to a request to review the set-up in the vestry. Comments from people attending the Makers Cafes have been that our space is welcoming and the library area inviting.
What is important for us to have in this space? What changes to that space would say more about who we are and what we believe? What do we want to have on those walls? How could we make the space more welcoming to new people? Can we make it easier to use our bulletin boards? We ask people to think about this and will discuss it more at our next monthly meeting.
7. Trustees — Sarah Sprogell
Sarah shared her report (attached). Trustees are aware that our large sign by the road needs replacement and will be looking to get this done. They appreciate any recommendations.
8. Travel Letter for Martha Sheldon —
Martha will be traveling to Ramallah in July with Jane and Max Carter and others, and she requests a travel letter from the Meeting. Martha taught at the Ramallah Friends School in the 1980s. Their group plans to be a presence of support and observation, doing labor in surrounding olive groves and visiting the school and Friends in the area. Sarah will write the letter and get it to Martha.
9. Leslie Manning’s Meeting Care Coordinator report is available on the website.
Leslie noted she is now scheduling message bringers for June and July and asks that anyone who has a message rising please contact her.
9. Closing
Sarah closed the Meeting with another reading from A Mystic Garden by Gunilla Norris:
Breathed by God clay begins to live.
See how there is no part of creation that is found unworthy of being.
Respectfully submitted, Nancy Marstaller, Recording Clerk pro tem
Attachments:
Ministry and Counsel report
Peace and Social Concerns report
Trustees report
Meeting Care Coordinator report
Falmouth Quarterly — Special Called Meeting, May 6, 2025, 7pm
Dear Falmouth Quarter Friends
You are invited to a zoom call on 5/6/25 at 7PM to discuss two specific concerns that have recently been forwarded to Falmouth Quarter.
The zoom link is here: zoom link . We have attached two letters we received.
The first from Susan Davies, Clerk of Permanent Board, invites us to attend a Permanent Board Meeting on May 10 in person or on zoom to continue the discernment about how we are called to gather as a yearly meeting – the current form is becoming difficult to sustain. We are also invited to attend a yet to be scheduled gathering this summer before sessions. What do we want to bring to the 5/10 Permanent Board meeting?
The second is a letter sent to us on April 12 from NorthEast Kingdom Monthly Meeting sharing a concern about the decision to have the 2025 sessions at UMass campus in Amherst. The letter was originally sent to the Yearly Meeting in January. How does Falmouth Quarter respond to concerns raised by NE Kingdom?
With Love, Fritz Weiss, Wendy Schlotterbeck, Mimi Marstaller, Falmouth Quarter
Letter from the Permanent Board Clerk regarding Sessions:
Also: Additional materials on Annual Sessions available HERE.
Letter from Northeast Kingdom MM
Additional Material Provided Via E-Mail Prior to the Called Meeting
From Doug Bennett, Durham MM: If we are to discuss the incident at U Mass Amherst, i think it would be useful to have available materials made available by the university as well, including the external review they had conducted. Link: https://www.umass.edu/news/key-issues/war-gaza
From Kathleen Wooten, Lawrence MM: Dear Friends: Phil Veatch (rising clerk of NEYM) shared these thoughts in Fresh Pond’s public newsfeed and it seems okay to share them here (below). I have no official knowledge of anything else but I am aware of how incredibly difficult it is for us to even find any location that can accommodate our needs. I hope we can keep listening for what is called for at this time. I’m also a graduate of UMass Amherst and have some background knowledge of their process in interacting with the community and local police, (having lived there a number of years) and it is very tricky.
“Dear Friends,
If I may add some context to the Midcoast letter. After the Yearly Meeting
staff had done an extensive search for sites that could host our annual
Sessions and found that the Amherst campus of the University of
Massachusetts was the only site this year that could meet the many needs of the gathering
including much improved handicap access, a group of people from Northeast
Kingdom raised the concerns about the treatment of demonstrators the year
before. Noah Merrill, the Yearly Meeting Secretary, took these concerns
seriously and met with Northeast Kingdom. He desired to work with their
concerns and offered many ways to address this problem including: holding
education workshops during Sessions, meeting with the University President
to work on preventing future such actions, meeting with the campus police,
and using the University’s actions as part of our decision making for
future events. What he did not offer was to cancel in-person Sessions for
2025- there was no other viable alternate site at that point. The
Northeast Kingdom was unable to see the benefit of engaging with the
University and working for change. All institutions will, at some point,
do harm – as we Quakers are well aware of from our own history. I do not
believe that disengagement from the world is the only, or often the best,
way to bring about the peaceable kingdom. As you form your understanding
and beliefs about the letter from the Midcoast Friends, I urge you to
consider the power of working together with those we most disagree with.
The University of Massachusetts is not a monolithic entity. There is much
room for engagement to create a better future.
Yours in peace,
Phil”
Agenda and Materials for April 27, 2025 Business Meeting
The Reports and Other Materials for the April 27, 2025 DFM Business Meeting are HERE.
AGENDA
Monthly Meeting for Business, April 27, 2025\
Opening
Approving Recording Clerk Pro Tem
M&C Report – Renee
P&SC Update – Ingrid
Request to Update aspects of the Vestry/Fellowship Room – Ingrid
Trustees Update – Sarah
Travel Letter for Martha Hinshaw Sheldon – Sarah
All Maine Gathering, May 3, at South China Community Church
Falmouth Quarterly Meeting today at 1pm at Portland Meeting and on Zoom
Close
All Maine Gathering of Friends, May 3, 2025
You are invited to join with Quakers from around Maine for the All Maine Gathering hosted by Vassalboro Quarterly Meeting on Saturday, May 3. It will be held at the South China Community Church, 46 Village Lane, South China, Maine 94358
Program: A Quaker Spin on the Spiral of Active Hope led by Mark Rains
The program for All-Maine Gathering will include opportunities for personal reflection and sharing, leading into small group exploration of Macy and Johnstone’s book and videos for “ACTIVE HOPE: How to face the mess we’re in with unexpected resilience and creative power”, with resources which Friends can take back to their meetings and communities. Brief queries will focus on gratitude, inspiration, concerns, possible action steps, obstacles, and supports. Small groups for lunchtime conversations may emerge to explore four spiraling steps from “experiencing gratitude” and “honoring specific concerns” (climate, exploitation, immigration, democracy, etc.), through ways that Quaker faith and practice (e.g. SPICES) can inform “seeing concerns through new eyes” and “going forth”, as led and supported.
Provisional schedule
8:30 Mugs & Muffins
9:00 Meeting for Worship followed by introductions
10:30 Program
12:00 Lunch – Soup will be provided. Contributions of bread, veggies, fruit & desserts are welcome.
1:30 Worship sharing / continued discussion
2:45 Closing & Clean-up
~ The Vassalboro QM Leadership Team: Mark Rains, Cynthia Harkleroad, Holly Weidner, Janet Hough
Friends Camp Spring 2025 Newsletter
| Dear Friends Camp Community, The daffodils have popped in my front yard, and that means spring is here! Camp is, of course, the quintessential summer activity for many of us. But spring is a very special season for camp, as well. As the Camp director, two of my favorite things happen during this season. Firstly, I get to talk with campers and their families about the upcoming summer. I love meeting you on Zoom, or having a phone call, and talking with your camper about hopes for the summer season. Please feel free to reach out if you’d like to do this! My second favorite thing about spring is that we host our Volunteer Work Weekend (May 16 – 18) at camp. It is so fun to come together with camp families, alums, Friends, members of our camp committee, staff members, and neighbors. In a weekend, our property goes from looking bedraggled after the long winter, to fresh and organized for a new season. If you’ve never attended work weekend, please know that we would love to have you! It is so heartening to feel like part of a team doing something that matters. There are roles for all kinds of volunteers: cooking, cleaning, raking, painting, sorting, laundry, and organizing. Scroll below to learn more and register for work weekend! This newsletter also contains information about: A Camp Timeline Project Reminders for Registered Families Seeking Your Recyclables for Art! An Available Rental Weekend in September And more! Looking forward, Anna Hopkins, Camp Director (207) 877-4302, director@friendscamp.or |
| Our annual volunteer work weekend is happening Friday, May 16 – Sunday, May 18 at Friends Camp! Work weekend is an opportunity to spend time at camp, helping prepare the property for the summer alongside others who care about camp. Volunteers should come prepared to participate in physical labor. Children are welcome to attend, but there is no kid’s program for the weekend, so families should plan on supervising their children the whole time. Use this link or click the button below to register! Volunteers are welcome to join for all of or any part of the weekend. Meals will be served from Friday dinner through Sunday breakfast. More information, including a packing list, will be sent out at a later date. |
| Tasks will include: raking & clearing pathways removing leaves and debris from cabin areas cleaning preparing the camp kitchen preparing flower & vegetable gardens minor carpentry projects outdoor painting If you have skills in a particular area, like carpentry, painting, gardening, or you own tools or equipment that could be useful for any of these project, please let us know! We are especially appreciative when people can lend their skills to camp. |
| Introducing: Camp Timeline Project! |
| During the summer of 2024, former counselor and office manager Erin Carr began the process of archiving the historical materials from Friends Camp’s beginning through the decades is has existed. This included director’s notes from the early days of camp, minutes from camp committee meetings, old daily schedules, and many pictures and videos. This summer, we plan to create a physical timeline that documents camp’s history and includes some of these historical materials, and we want your input! Is there a moment or event that you think should be included in the timeline of Friends Camp? Fill out this form and tell us about it! We are hoping the timeline will be installed by the end of the summer. For now, check out these photos from the summer of 2000! Above is campers performing in Aviary at a variety show. Below are campers playing basketball (the hoop is attached to the Health Hut – wild!) and a picture of Snipe cabin. |
| Reminders for 2025 Registered Families |
| For families with campers registered in 2025, the summer is feeling closer than ever! We are so excited to have your campers with us this summer. Head over to our website to download and read through the handbook for campers and parents. The handbook contains lots of handy information to prepare you for coming to camp, including what to pack for your session. There are also a few upcoming deadlines to be aware of. Reach out to our office with questions about either of these deadlines. May 1: Health forms due. Log into your Camp Brain account to complete the online health form and to upload immunizations and physician’s forms. June 1: Tuition due in full. Pay via e-check or credit card online, or mail a paper check to Friends Camp. |
| Seeking Your Recyclables! |
| Our Friends Camp Meetinghouse is our most creative space at camp. This special space (first constructed by Friends in 1806!) plays host to all different kinds of creative arts including drawing, painting, fiber arts, sculpture, printmaking, ceramics, and more. We love to turn cast-offs into art. We are currently seeking the following items that can be dropped off to Friends Camp during our May volunteer weekend or at any camper drop-off. To arrange another time to drop off supplies, please email Anna at director@friendscamp.org. If you have a large stash, we may be able to arrange pick-up! |
| Tile samples Paint samples Shoe boxes Baby food jars 35mm film canisters Marbles and aquarium glass rocks Bottle caps (plastic and metal) Corks, Dowels, PVC pipe,Wire, Wood scraps (balsam is great!) | Ribbons Cabinet hinges and knobs Screws, nuts, bolts, and washers Beads (plastic, wood, and glass) Paint brushes (any condition, no wider than 2″) Cardboard tubes (wrapping paper, bath tissue, paper towel) Tissue boxes Can tabs Tissue paper Tension clothespins |
| Rental Weekend Available |
| The weekend of September 12 – 14, 2025 is available to rent for family reunions, group retreats, weddings, or other events! Friends Camp has multiple large buildings that can host up to 100 people, open fields & wooded areas, ample housing, and lakefront access. If you are interested in renting camp for a weekend event, please reach out to director@friendscamp.org or 207-877-4302. |
| Register for the Young Friends Spring Retreat |
| Register today for the Young Friends Spring Retreat, which will be May 2nd-4th at Framingham Friends Meeting. The theme for this retreat is “Nurturing Creative & Spiritual Practices.” Read more about the retreat and register at neym.org. Young Friends retreats are special opportunities for high schoolers in New England to take a deeper dive into building community and exploring the Quaker way together. Join Young Friends for a weekend at Framingham Friends Meeting where we will explore art, music, worship, and other practices that give meaning to our personal and communal lives. Registration closes April 28th. |
| Social Media Staff Intros! |
| Each year on our Instagram page (@friendscamp) we introduce our staff for the upcoming summer. Follow us and stay tuned to learn about all the counselors, kitchen staff, and other staff members who will be at camp this summer. Below is our staff from 2024 – many of whom will be making an appearance again this summer! Can you guess who? |
Woman’s Society Minutes, March 17, 2025
Woman’s Society Minutes, March 17, 2025, and also the USFWI NE Spring 2025 Newsletter
Present: Dorothy Curtis, President, Nancy Marstaller, Treasurer, Susan Gilbert, Secretary.
Cards: For Friends.
Program and Devotions: We took turns reading the newsletter Marion Baker wrote and sent us from the USFWI Northeast Regional Meeting held February 2, 2025.
Treasurer’s Report: Two hats knitted and donated to WS by Martha Sheldon were sold for $35. We have $85.58 in our account.
Minutes: Susan read the 2.22.2025 minutes.
Tedford Meal: Team D, Dorothy Curtis, and Kim Bolshaw with a contribution from Susan Gilbert brought meat loaf, mashed potatoes, green beans, banana bread, and gingerbread to Tedford House. The April 5 meal will be made by Team E, contact person Nancy Marstaller. Durham Friends provide dinner for Tedford House on the first Monday of each month. Contributions of prepared food or money for the Team to buy food for Tedford are always welcome.
Other Business: At the 3.16. Meeting For Worship, Dorothy Curtis presented Syretha, Nancy’s daughter, with a quilt she finished for the birth of her first child, Lulu, which was given and received with tears and joy. The blocks had been embroidered by Clarabel Marstaller, Margaret Wentworth, Bea Douglas, Kitsie Hildebrandt, Sukie Rice, Dorothy Hinshaw, Sue Wood, Nancy Marstaller, Dorothy Curtis, Linda Muller, Harmony Brown, and Deanna Coro. In the thank you card to Dorothy from Syretha, Joe and Lulu, Syretha wrote “Thank you so much for …the gift of the quilt…it means so much to me to have a quilt with squares done by so many people I have known and loved, that they will touch Lulu even though they never got to meet her here on earth.”
Nancy Marstaller brought up the Quaker way of expressing to each other that we are unique and wonderfully made in the image of God. She also commented that for Durham Friends quilt making and giving is important to us as it demonstrates caring.
For St. Patrick’s Day, Dorothy ended the meeting the Irish prayer:
May the road rise up to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back,
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
And rains fall soft upon your fields.
Respectfully Submitted, Susan Gilbert
The USFWI NE Spring 2025 Newsletter
Durham Friends Meeting on the Durham Historical Society Website
April 2025 Durham Friends Newsletter
Falmouth Quarterly Meeting, April 26-27, 2025
UPDATED schedule of the Journey of Peace and Friendship
[NOTE: Durham Friends Meeting will hold its April 2025 Meeting for Business on April 27 at noon.]
Falmouth Quarter is scheduled for April 26th and 27th. On April 26th we will join A Journey of Peace and Friendship: Kindling Moral Courage, Kindness and Connection”. This is an event designed to be an antidote to the fear, division and chaos our communities are experiencing currently: it is being planned by a multi-faith planning group gathered by Sherri Mitchell, Penobscot writer, activist and attorney. Shirley Hager and Andy Burt from Midcoast Friends Meeting are part of the organizing group. Please also see this website for more information: https://www.landpeacefoundation.org/events
Sherri writes: “We are bringing together a multi-faith, cross-cultural group to organize a 7 day processional prayer/unity walk to uplift the dignity and sacredness of every living being. We will begin with a ceremony at the Penobscot Nation Boat Landing on April 22nd (Earth Day), where Wabanaki people will welcome all those who have come to this land seeking refuge, asylum, or simply a better life. We will also honor Mother Earth who holds and nurtures us all.
We will begin our processional following the opening/welcome ceremony with a five mile walk. Each of the following days, we’ll begin and end our day of walking with a prayer, ceremony, or ritual led by one of the faith groups joining the walk. We intend to invite people to join us in those moments of prayer, even if they cannot join the walk. On the 29th, we will arrive in Augusta and hold a collective ceremony, with prayers, songs, and shared vision at the state house.
We will also be reaching out to those with perceived differences and asking them to walk together during the walk, this includes politicians, religious groups, etc., to help connect and humanize one another. Our goal is to uplift all that we hold most dear, we want to celebrate one another, show our care for another, and amplify moral courage, kindness, and connection. “
On Saturday the 26th the day will begin with a prayer circle at 8:30, followed by a 5 mile walk and a midday celebration, multi-faith worship, and feast. Friends are welcome to join the prayer circle, and the walk or just come to the feast and celebration. In the afternoon there will be another 4 mile walk. We will send details of where the procession is, and organize carpools later.
The quarter will also gather Sunday 4/27 afternoon at a meetinghouse to be determined to receive and forward State of Society reports, Memorial Minutes and reports of those with recognized ministries.
All are welcomed and All are needed.
Durham Friends Meeting Minutes, March 16, 2025
Durham Monthly Meeting of Friends DRAFT Minutes, March 16, 2025
Durham Monthly Meeting of Friends met for the conduct of business on Sunday, March 16, 2025, with 14 people in attendance at the Meetinghouse and three people by Zoom.
1. Meeting Opening
Clerk opened the Meeting with a traditional Irish blessing from the book Earth Prayers From Around the World.
“May the blessing of light be on you, light without and light within. May the blessed sunshine shine on you and warm your heart till it glows like a great peat fire, so that the stranger may come and warm himself at it, and also a friend.
“And may the light shine out of the two eyes of you, like a candle set in the two windows of a house, bidding the wanderer come in out of the storm; and may the blessings of the rain be on you — the soft, sweet rain. May it fall upon your spirit so that all the little flowers may spring up and shed their sweetness on the air. And may the blessings of the Great Rains be on you, may they beat upon your spirit and wash it fair and clean, and leave there many a shining pool where the blue of heaven shines, and sometimes a star.
“And may the blessing of the Earth be on you — the great round earth; may you ever have a kindly greeting for those you pass as you’re along the roads. may the earth be soft under you when you rest upon it, tired at the end of a day, and may it rest easy over you when at the last, you lay out under it; may it rest so lightly over you that your soul may be off from under it quickly and up and off, and on its way to God. And now may the Lord bless you all and bless you kindly.”
2. Approval of Minutes of February 16, 2024 — Ellen Bennett
Meeting approved the February minutes.
3. Ministry and Counsel — Tess Hartford, Renee Cote
The State of Society Report was read aloud. The report that was read differed from the report that was distributed in advance of the meeting; it included modification of the last paragraph.
Suggestions were made to spell out acronyms, e.g., LACO. as well as a few others. All changes to the Report are included in the attachment.
Meeting approved the report, with gratitude.
4. Statistical Report— Sarah Sprogell
The Statistical Report was reviewed (see attachment). A question was asked about financial contributions to New England Yearly Meeting and the connection to the number of members. There is no longer a per head requirement for the Meeting contribution to NEYM.
Looking at Yearly Meeting records for trends, the YM is losing about 1.5% of its membership every year, and at Durham Friends Meeting, we are on that trend line. This is true of most YMs in the US. We review our annual budget and consider our YM contribution every year.
Meeting accepted the report, with gratitude.
5. Trustees Report —Sarah Sprogell
The Gathering Room and kitchen need new light fixtures. A very reasonable quote was offered, slightly more than $2,000, for replacing all the lights, including the lights for the Exit signs. Bulbs will be replaced with LEDs.
Meeting approved this expenditure, coming from the capital fund.
6. On the use of Rachel Carey-Harper’s Donation — Linda Muller
After conducting some research, Linda Muller and Sarah Sprogell recommend the Meeting donate the remaining $1,000 (out of the original $2,000 gift) to Safe Voices, a domestic violence, direct service organization working in Androscoggin, Oxford and Franklin Counties. This is a geographic area of greater risk, many towns without standing police departments. Over 2,700 women were served last year.
Meeting heartily approved this contribution.
Rachel has asked us to view a website called Healing Voices, which she is involved in creating. Information will be included in the April newsletter.
7. 250th Anniversary Celebration —Ellen Bennett
A proposal was made to spend, from communications line in the budget, up to $250 for a banner for the horse shed. Communications committee will research this and get back to the Meeting.
Possible event dates to celebrate our 250th are an event in July, one in October, and a lecture to be given in concert with the Durham Historical Society.
8. Peace and Social Concerns — Ingrid Chalufour
No report.
Donations will be gratefully accepted to help defray the cost of framing the Wabanaki posters that will hang in the Vestry/Gathering room. In addtion, the request was made to check out the website to read about LD 958 that concerns eminent domain and Wabanaki lands.
9. Library — Dorothy Hinshaw
The request was made to increase this year’s budgeted amount to $300, in part to renew the Meeting’s Pendle Hill pamphlet subscription and to purchase pamphlets not currently in our library. It was suggested that the library budget line be charged, and if we go over budget for this year, it tells us something — overages can provide important information — as we prepare future budgets.
Meeting accepted this approach.
10. Makers Cafe Update — Outreach Committee members
As a Maker Cafe group, we would like to continue to host these events, beyond the initial three as a trial run, and ask for approval to continue.
Meeting approved continuing the Maker Cafés.
11. Other Business
The request was made to honor Gabriel’s first birthday this month, with a cake and singing. Someone will check with Laura and Ezra for the best Sunday to do this.
12. Closing Worship
Clerk closed with a blessing by Diane Neu, from Earth Prayers from Around the World.
Blessed be the works of your hands, O Holy One.
Blessed be these hands that have touched life.
Blessed be these hands that have nurtured creativity.
Blessed be these hands that have held pain.
Blessed be these hands that have embraced with passion.
Blessed be these hands that have ended gardens.
Blessed be these hands that have closed in anger.
Blessed be these hands that have planted new seeds.
Blessed be these hands that have harvested ripe fields.
Blessed be these hands that have cleaned, washed, mopped, scrubbed.
Blessed be these hands that have become knotty with age.
Blessed be these hands that are wrinkled and scarred from doing justice.
Blessed be these hands that have reached out and been received.
Blessed be these hands that hold the promise of the future.
Blessed be the works of your hands, O Holy One.
Respectfully submitted, Ellen Bennett, Recording Clerk
The 1943 Booker Quilt Returns to Durham Friends Meeting
For many years — more than I know — members of Durham Friends Meeting have made quilts to be given away. In recent years, the quilts have been given to the parents and grandparents of newly-born babies associated with the Meeting. They have also been made and gifted for other reasons. One of those quilts recently made it’s way back to Durham Friends, a gift in return of Faye Passow, an artist in Minnesota. (You can learn more about Faye here and here.) The quilt had originally been made for and given to her grandparents. We are very grateful to Faye Passow for this gift.
“I am the daughter of Lydia Passow (Booker), who was the daughter of Harold and Jennie Booker, who were members of the Durham Friends Meeting. When my mother a teenager their house burned down and they went to live with an aunt, whose house also burned down. During that time this quilt was created for them by members of the community. I believe but am not sure many were members of the Meetinghouse.
“I currently have this quilt and have no descendants to pass it to and am thinking that it might be of interest to either the Meetinghouse or a local historical society. I am writing to you first as I think you may know many of these names or their relations and might suggest the proper place for this quilt.
“… The quilt was put together in 1943. The names on the quilt are:
Please forgive any spelling errors. The names are stitched in and not always readable.”
Here is the quilt, being shown in the Meetinghouse. Two of our quilters, Dorothy Henton Curtis and Angie Henton Reed are holding it.
In a further message, Faye Passow provided a photo of her Booker family.
“I’m sending a photo of the Booker family. Harold, upper left, would be my grandfather. Jennie Booker sits below him. Mabel Russell was my great aunt, married to Fred Russell. Mary Tarr is most likely the Mary Booker of the quilt square. She is my great aunt also, sister of Harold. She was married in 1944, so after the quilt was created. She died in 1994. The unknown men in the photo are probably Harold’s brothers: Ralph Howard Booker and Raymond Phillips Booker. Harriet Booker was married to Ralph.
“My grandfather’s parents were Eugene Loring Booker and Sarah (Sadie) Rowena (Cox) Booker. She is likely the Sadie you refer to. Born 1868, died 1928.
“Barbara (Russell) Weldon and Doris (Russell) Dupal are the only close relatives remaining that I know of in Maine. One of Doris’ children is married to a Reed, which I believe there is a firewood business in Durham related to the Reed family.
“Also – Ella M Brown, another name on the quilt, was my grandmother Jennie’s mother.
“Minnie Winn was probably Margaret (Brown) Winn, daughter of my grandmother’s brother Hugh. He worked at Worumbo for 50 years and apparently was known affectionately as “Jumbo” for his large size. My grandfather was an electrician at Worumbo.
“Mildred Winn was probably the wife of Carl, son of my grandmother’s brother Hugh.
“There is also an Aunt Jennie on the quilt who may be Jennie Lind (Brown) Douglas, aunt to my grandfather.
“My mother was prolific at searching out family genealogy and wrote a book on Booker and Brown ancestors. She was a member of the DAR, Colonial Dames and the Mayflower Society. She also as a side, was interested in Shiloh as a phenomenon and I have a couple of books on that subject.”
A Gift from Rachel Carey-Harper and How We Have Used It
Rachel Carey-Harper, a Quaker in New England Yearly Meeting, recently made a gift to Durham Friends. (At the same time she made similar gifts to other Meetings in NEYM.) She asked us to re-donate this money to causes of importance to us. Here is what we have done.
From the February 2025 Meeting Minutes: The Meeting received a $2,000 gift from Rachel Carey-Harper. She expressed a desire that the money support people who are affected by the ways in which our government is no longer funding organizations, e.g., immigrants and refugees, LGBTQ+, Women’s shelters, etc. The money may be given to more than one organization. The suggestion was made that a portion of the funds go to domestic violence survivors. Several people spoke in support of giving to Maine Immigrant and Refugee Services (MEIRS) today, the need being immediate. Clerk proposed giving $1,000 to MEIRS today, and return next month to discuss allocation of the remainder. Meeting approved this proposal.
From the March 2025 Meeting Minutes: “On the use of Rachel Carey-Harper’s Donation — Linda Muller. After conducting some research, Linda Muller and Sarah Sprogell recommend the Meeting donate the remaining $1,000 (out of the original $2,000 gift) to Safe Voices, a domestic violence direct service organization working in Androscoggin, Oxford and Franklin Counties. This is a geographic area of greater risk, many towns without standing police departments. Over 2,700 women were served last year. Meeting heartily approved this contribution.”
Rachel Carey-Harper has asked us to look at and give feedback to Healing Reflections, a new website launched with support, collaboration, and guidance from Barnstable Friends Preparative Meeting and approval of Mattapoisett Monthly Meeting. The website focuses on grounding ourselves in what connects us, healing that which separates us from each other, and ways we can move forward in love. They would like to know if you think there is anything being presented that is contrary to basic Friends faith and principles. We are encouraged to contribute to the “From the Orchestra” section which includes messages or reflections sharing our sense of Spirit.
You can learn more about the family business, Eden Hand Arts, which Rachel Carey-Harper now owns, HERE.
Friends Camp Openings for Summer 2025
Friends Camp has let us know that there are still spaces available for kids of all ages at Friends Camp this summer — but those spaces are going fast. Also there are camperships (scholarships for camping) available for all ages.
Friends Ca,p i the Quaker Summer Camp of our Yerarly Meeting, and located in China, Maine. It is a wonderful way for kids to build community with other young Friends, develop their Quaker identity and have a wonderful adventure.
To learn more, visit www.friendscamp.org.
State of Society Report, 2024
State of Society Report 2024
After the restrictions placed on our community by the COVID pandemic were lifted and we began to meet in person in spring 2023, 2024 was a time of renewed spirit of being together and flourishing through our in-person worship. We had an infusion of energy with our new Meeting Care Coordinator. Her devotion to finding message bringers from within and outside the meeting and her efforts to use her connections across the Yearly Meeting and in the community have brought us greater connection outside the meeting.
When our Clerk stepped down at the end of 2023 and no new Clerk stepped up, Durham Friends Meeting began the practice recommended by Faith and Practice of rotating the clerkship through the committee clerks. This has been a rewarding experience for the committee clerks who have not been in the role of Meeting Clerk before. It has called up the different spiritual gifts as well as developed new skills in the way of corporate discernment.
The Makers Café is our latest outreach to the wider community. Begun through conversations that evolved into an ad hoc committee, the Makers Café events began at the end of 2024 with a wreath-making evening. The “Makers” describe this outreach as “trying to provide a welcoming, offline place for folks to hang out, learn, and connect. We want to share our Meetinghouse with a wider community. We want to help neighbors meet neighbors and help people learn how to make things, together.”
We continue to participate with other area churches in preparing meals at the Tedford Shelter in Brunswick and to support the Lisbon Area Christian Outreach food pantry, as well as renewing our involvement with the Brunswick Area Interfaith Council.
The Woman’s Society continues to meet monthly, mostly at the meetinghouse and on Zoom, and occasionally at a member’s home. We are a small caring community that seeks to support each other and any member of the meeting who might be in need of extra support. We have devotions and a program from Blueprints, a booklet published by the United Society of Friends Women International (USFWI). We have continued to hold plant sales, jam and jelly sales, and silent auctions, donating the proceeds to projects of the USFWI and to local organizations.
The primary activity of Peace and Social Concerns has been their leadership in the formation of Mawoluhkhotipon (Mou-look-ha-deeb-in), meaning We Work Together. Working with the Pejepscot Portage Mapping Project and representatives of the Brunswick Town Council, this organization states its mission as follows: “Mawoluhkhotipon is a community group of Wabanaki and their allies supporting projects that engage the Brunswick community in learning more about and reflecting upon the rich history and culture of the Wabanaki people of this region.” Members of Durham Friends Meeting are actively involved in the steering committee, the group working on signage and naming on public land, and the group working with the public schools to increase Wabanaki studies at all levels.
The Social Justice Book Project, an offshoot of Peace and Social Concerns, had the benefit of a grant from Obadiah Brown’s Benevolent Fund during the 2023-2024 school year. These funds allowed teachers to document how they used the Social Justice books given by the meeting. The project used the teachers’ work to create four guidebooks: Creating an Anti-Bias Classroom Community, Exploring the Black Experience in America, Exploring Wabanaki History and Culture, and a Guide to Building a Social Justice Book Project. These guidebooks are available online at https://www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org/?p=6895.
In addition to our ongoing financial support for the Puente de Amigos group, we sent one person to visit our sister meeting in Cuba in 2024, and supported the preparation for two members to be part of the 2025 delegation.
We continue the practice of using our charity account for financial support where we discern that such support is needed.
Although we had no increase in membership, we experienced new energy with attenders old and young—a spiritual elder and some parents and their new baby, who has delighted us with his own vocal ministry. Sadly, we lost five members to either death or transfer to other meetings in 2024.
We continue to recognize the need for ongoing healing in our community. We are aware that the lingering effects of hard problems and conflicts that arose during the three years of the pandemic require our care and attention. We are committed to working together with love and respect and to healing the wounds that remain. Just as our outreach confirms our sense of purpose, our time together always reminds us of the faithful love that continues to hold our small and sturdy community.
Approved, March 16, 2025
“Holding Our Stories with a Spirit of Forgiveness,” by Wendy Schlotterbeck
Message given at Durham Friends Meeting, March 16, 2025
“Be a good ancestor. Stand for something bigger than yourself. Add value to the Earth during your sojourn.” – Marian Wright Edelman
Last fall, when Ingrid, Cindy and I cleaned out the Sunday School cupboard we found a small box labelled “Time capsule” with messages that Durham Young Friends and others created on Childrens’ Day June 12, 2011. Evidently it didn’t get buried in the ground as planned! It seemed like the start of a message to me and I offered to bring one sometime. The opening to contemplate past voices of Durham Friends arrived this week,and it seems a good followup to Doug’s message last week about the history of our meeting.
Last month I had the privilege to visit the Acoma pueblo outside of Albuquerque NM. This is my understanding of their story and hope it accurately reflects their story. The Acoma people have continuously occupied the area for over 2000 years. They built a town- now called Sky City around 1100 atop a 365 ft mesa. Until the 1950’s it was only accessible by climbing the stone wall vertically using chiseled recesses in the rock. Everything including water, food, bricks needed to be carried up the steep rock wall. Acoma elders still choose to live there even with no electricity or running water. They are resilient people. In the past 2000+ years, they have experienced massacres over and over, enslavement and Spanish colonialism, climate change, enforced conversion to catholicism. In the 20th century, their children were removed by our government and by 1922 most were in Christian boarding schools.
A remarkable part of the Acoma pueblo atop the mesa is the huge Adobe church built at the command of the Spanish in the 1600’s. Acoma men were forced to walk 30 miles away to fell tall 40 foot ponderosa pine trees and carry them back and up the rockwall to build the church roof.Men women and children were forced to build this church. No record exists about how many Acoma died as a result of slave labor. But the church exists today and holds many stories, both painful and miraculous. How Queen Isabella who initially ordered the enslavement and massacre changed her mind and stopped the killing of the Acoma. How President Lincoln singled out the Acoma and several other pueblos and wrote into law their sovereignty.
Our thoughtful and knowledgeable tour guide, Brandon, told the history of the trauma and resilience of his people. He said the Acoma have chosen to share their stories and allow visitors. They have been able to survive by compromising at times but more importantly holding a spirit of forgiveness in order to not be racked with hate. As we stood to walk out of the church, I asked him how he and his community are feeling in the current day. He said they are terrified, angry but resolute in maintaining their culture amid the current political situation. He worries about his kids and the children in the community. He said they have been threatened with deportation and chuckled about the irony- where will they send us back to? His Aunt called him recently and was fearful and depressed. He told her to remember the Beatles Song “Let it be.” Their community will stand together, and band with the other 18 Pueblos in New Mexico to fight injustice both for them and for everyone’s children.
When I find myself in times of trouble
Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom
Let it be
And in my hour of darkness
She is standing right in front of me
Speaking words of wisdom
Let it be
And when the broken-hearted people
Living in the world agree
There will be an answer
Let it be
For though they may be parted
There is still a chance that they will see
There will be an answer
Let it be
Our meeting family has been around for many fewer years than the Acoma- only 250. And we have many stories of the people and events that make up the fabric of our community. Last week, Doug gave a wonderful account of some of the tales of our meeting. We have experienced trauma but also the power of the Spirit that has bolstered our resilience and sustains us. And we have shared many sacred hours.
Each of us also is part of our biological family with its share of love and trauma and resilience and sacred moments. When I was looking through family documents and papers on my recent visit to my dad, I found a letter that troubled me. It was from a family member and was a cruel, vengeful account of several experiences this person witnessed from other family members. I was troubled because it was told from a narrow perspective as each of us is prone to do. This letter accused other family members of damaging our family beyond repair, and in my view were inaccurate and didn’t leave room for discourse on healing. In talking with a friend about what to do both with this letter and my response she told me about her experience working as a hospice chaplain and the dilemma people face with family stories that reflect a bad decision or human frailty but can be destructive. Some stories become stuck in the past and don’t allow for healing or redemption. Her wisdom to me was to sort through what family stories are constructive to pass on and what stories may be acknowledged, faced head on, but possibly reframed or not passed on. Allow the story to run its course. I was reminded of Brandon’s wisdom about holding our stories with a spirit of forgiveness.
My current ruminations are around stories- my family stories, my Meeting family stories and our country’s stories. How do I, how do we, recount our history? We have so many stories- our conversations, relationships, events. How do we account for human frailty, unkind words, injustice that we have inflicted or received? Which stories have no purpose, which can we reframe to strengthen bonds of love and wholeness? These are all questions I’ve been wrestling with. What legacy do I want to leave my family, my Meeting family, my community, my world?
James Baldwin wrote:
“This is why one must say Yes to life and embrace it whenever it is found — and it is found in terrible places; nevertheless, there it is.
For nothing is fixed, forever and forever and forever, it is not fixed; the earth is always shifting, the light is always changing, the sea does not cease to grind down rock. Generations do not cease to be born, and we are responsible to them because we are the only witnesses they have.
The sea rises, the light fails, lovers cling to each other, and children cling to us. The moment we cease to hold each other, the moment we break faith with one another, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out.“
