2. Ministry & Counsel- State of Society- Tess or Renee
3. Statistical report, Trustees report- Sarah
4. On the use of Rachel Carey Harper’s donation, Linda Muller and Sarah Sprogell recommend we donate $1000 to Safe Voices, a domestic violence organization working in Androscoggin, Oxford and Franklin Counties. They have 3 shelters, 2 for victims of domestic abuse and 1 for victims of sex trafficking and exploitation. Currently Safe Voices is the only provider for support services and shelter for these needs within their 3-county area. Last year they served over 2500 individuals within their 3-county area.
Rachel requests info on website, details will be posted on our website
5. Get banner as part of 250th celebration? Approve up to $200 from general fund for purchase?
6. Peace & Social Concerns announcements- Ingrid
7. Library – request to increase budgeted amount to $300- Dot
Advance sign up required. Email Craig@Freshley.com to reserve your spot.
There might be a materials charge; details provided when you write to sign up or inquire.
6:30-8:30 Maker Cafe with The Peterson String Band
Free and open to the public. No sign up required.
Bring a project to work on. Some knitting, stitching, writing, reading, drawing, coloring, carving, or whatever you want. And if you don’t bring a project that’s okay too.
Message given at Durham Friends Meeting, March 8, 2025
Older than the Declaration of Independence. Older than the United States of America.
That’s how old this Meeting is. Founded in 1775, this is our 250th year as a Quaker Meeting. The Declaration of Independence won’t have it’s 250th anniversary until next year.
Since before there was a United States; 45 years before there was a Maine, we Friends have been worshipping together in this corner of Durham, regularly and faithfully, week in and week out for 250 years. That is 13,000 1st Days. I bet we have not missed many. This year is our Anniversary. It is an occasion for celebration.
We celebrate anniversaries: birthdays, wedding anniversaries, deaths of prominent people and loved ones, important dates in history. Our 250th Anniversary is notable, and not just to those who worship here. It is notable, too, for Durham, for the residents of Midcoast Maine, for New England Yearly Meeting, and for Quakers everywhere. But it is especially important for us who worship here now – in the present and in the future.
As we look back across the years, we remember many individuals who have been part of this Meeting, helped shape it and sustain it.
We remember individuals who were part of the life of this Meeting, no longer with us: Margaret Wentworth, Sukie Rice, Bobbie Jordan, Louis Marstaller, Clarabel Marstaller, Macy Whitehead, Eileen Babcock, Bea Douglass, Kitsie Hildebrandt, Charlotte Ann Curtis, Helen Clarkson, Sue Wood, Phyllis Wetherell. No doubt you can think of others, and think, too, of the dozens and dozens of others who passed away enough years ago that no one of us present today has specific memory of them. They, too, are part of our story. The earthly bodies of many of these Friends are interred in the cemeteries we maintain.
For many decades we had pastors, and we remember them: Ralph Green, Jim Douglass, Daphne Clement, Doug Gwyn – and many more.
Some left bequests to the Meeting that make possible what we do today: Woodbury, Bailey , Pratt, Cox, Pennell, Goddard, Douglass, Babcock. Those funds are a kind of inheritance from the past, and they help fuel our present. In parts near and far there are quilts that have been sewn to welcome babies to this world.
Our beloved Meeting house is another kind of inheritance. We first built a Meetinghouse on this site in 1790, and another in 1800. This current brick Meetinghouse, our third on this site, dates from 1829. It, too, is a gift from the past that sustains our Meeting today.
We should make our marking of this anniversary in this year a time of remembering people and events that have shaped us.
There is a great deal about the history of this Meeting that I do not know. Much of it can probably be learned from the Minutes we have faithfully kept. We do, however, know some of the large context.
Here is one way to mark the 250 years. Friends gathered in worship here during the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, the Civil War, the Spanish American War, the First World War, the Second World War, the Korean War, the Cold War, the Vietnam War, the endless recent wars. Through all these wars, we have prayed for understanding, for mercy and for peace. Over these centuries we have cared for our members in times of trouble, and assisted our neighbors.
For centuries, this place has been the home of the Abenaki. The placed we call Maine, today, was further settled by European immigrants as part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Over the course of the 1600s and early 1700s, these settlers displaced the indigenous Abenaki. By disease, by swelling numbers of immigrants, and sometimes by violence, the Abenaki were pushed aside and away. We remember that the Abenaki were here first, and we should.
Over that very same course of time, 1650 or so to 1750, the religious movement we call Quakerism was coming to life, first in England but spreading quickly beyond England. In 1642, in the midst of the English Civil War — a religious war between Protestants and Catholics — George Fox had his epiphany on Pendle Hill. He realized God would speak to him in the present. He gathered others and they created a movement: “primitive Christianity revived.” Less than two decades after Pendle Hill there were Quakers in what is now Rhode Island. Fox visited the Americas in the 1670s.
The first Quaker Meeting in what is now Maine took place about 1730, in what is today Berwick. Midcoast Maine, where we are, was beset by strife and war between colonial settlers and native Americans until about 1770. When that quieted down, our Meeting began in 1775. Farmers came here from Harpswell and from southern Maine. Their first Meetings were held in the log houses they built. There is just 130 years or so from the epiphany on Pendle Hill to the founding of Durham Friends Meeting – about half the number of years that follow from the founding of this Meeting to today. For two-thirds of the time there has been Quakerism anywhere, there has been Quaker worship at Durham Friends Meeting.
It is right we think of the Declaration of Independence when we think of the year of our founding. Quakers in New England and this Meeting: we were established in strivings for religious reform and religious liberty.
The first European-style religious organization in these parts was the Congregational Church, the established church of Massachusetts Bay Colony. The first religious service of these Congregationalists of which we have record was in 1717, and took place outdoors at the falls between Brunswick and Topsham.
Religious freedom as we know it was not respected here at that time. There was an official religion, and everyone was expected to follow its ways. It was not OK in Massachusetts Bay to be anything other than a Puritan (a Congregationalist). Roger Williams was driven out of Massachusetts Bay in 1636. Ann Hutchinson was driven out in 1637. The Quaker Mary Dyer was hanged on Boston Common in 1660 – hanged for preaching “the diabolical doctrines” of the “cursed sect of Quakers.”
So far as we know, the coming of Quaker worship in Royalsborough (now called Durham) in 1775 was just the second such European-style religious organization to begin services here in this area – and therefore the first non-Congregationalist organized worship. We Quakers were a feisty bunch, the religious renegades – the independents.
Freedom of religion was not officially recognized in Massachusetts until 1780, a few years after we began. After 1780 other denominations entered the picture. The Baptists began to worship in these parts in 1783, Universalists in 1812, Methodists in 1821, Unitarians in 1829, Episcopalians in 1842, and Roman Catholics about 1860.
In our early years we helped spread the Quaker manner of worship more widely in Maine. The Hattie Cox history from 1929 says this Meeting “mothered groups of Friends in Lewiston, Greene, Wales, Leeds, Wilton, Pownal and Litchfield.”
Quakerism has not been an unchanged or unchanging thing during all these years. At times we have adopted new ways, smoothly. At other times, not so much. There used to be separate entrances to this very Meetinghouse for women and for men, and a sliding wall that allowed them to meet together or separately. Some of you can remember when the benches were rearranged into a square. At other times there have been schisms. When Elias Hicks and his followers divided American Friends (especially in Philadelphia and Baltimore) in the 1820s, we stayed with the Orthodox Friends, as did most of New England Yearly Meeting.
In the middle of the 19th century, when Englishman Joseph John Gurney preached evangelical zeal to American Friends, this Meeting with many others in our Yearly Meeting followed the Gurneyite path, while others, those we call Wilburites, stayed with the older ways. In time, that Gurneyite path brought us hymn singing and later brought us to have pastors. We did not used to have hymn singing or pastors.
Through the years there has been a Religious Society of Friends, Quakers have alternated between two modes. Sometimes we separate ourselves a bit from the world and try to live on our own terms keeping to our own ways. At other times, we have seen our ways as something to try to spread to others both through ministry and through social action. This Meeting has had periods of both, but today, you all know, we are very much of a ‘spreading our ways to others’ inclination.
Today, we are simultaneously a place of spiritual worship and support and a hub of activism. That activism has many faces: a food ministry through Tedford and LACO, opposition to gun violence, social justice education for the young, welcoming assistance to migrants, support for Native American causes, affirmation of same-sex relationships, prison reform, connection to Cuba Yearly Meeting. We take guidance from AFSC and FCNL. This is a great deal for a numerically small Meeting.
An anniversary is a time to remember and be grateful for the past. It is also a time to take stock of the present situation, and then to recommit ourselves, as a Meeting.
In our current circumstances, I find myself thinking of what Lincoln said to the Congress in 1862: “The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise — with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.” Our anniversary is a time for fresh thinking about who we are and what we want to do together.
We are a smaller Meeting today than we have been for much of our history. Still, we are a sturdy Meeting, one filled with remarkable people. I look around this room each Sunday and I see many Friends who are deeply faithful and also deeply engaged in making the world better. I see individuals who do the work of many. Our numbers may be fewer, but the presence is astonishing.
There is a future before us, and we all hope a 300th anniversary, and a 350th, and on and on. It is our future to make.
What’s most important, for me at least, is that here in Durham, at this place, there continues to be worship every First Day after the manner of Friends. “After the manner of Friends”: I don’t mean that in any formalistic way. I don’t mean we have to open with a hymn and close with announcements and a hymn. I mean rather that each time we gather we are alert to what God has to say to us now. That is our most important inheritance, and also our gift to the those yet to come: the confidence that God is speaking to us today, the faith that God will speak to us when we still ourselves and listen.
Message given at Durham Friends Meeting, March 2, 2025
Did you ever wish you could talk to animals when you were a kid?
I did. As a child, I longed to understand them—not just their behaviors, but their thoughts, their emotions, the stories they held in their bones. But like most childhood dreams, I let it fade as I grew older. The world has a way of convincing us that wonder is something to outgrow.
And I might have believed that—until the day I saw a documentary about Anna Breytenbach, a professional animal communicator from South Africa. In the film, she connected with a black leopard named Spirit who had been deeply misunderstood in captivity. But through deep listening, she was able to hear him—to understand the grief and pain that lived in his body.
Something inside me cracked open as I watched Anna transform Spirit’s life through communicating with him and his human caretakers.
For the first time since I was a child, I believed my dream of being able to talk to animals wasn’t just a fantasy—it could be my reality.
A few years after I saw the documentary, Spirit visited me in a dream.
In the dream, I was leading an animal communication retreat, guiding others into silence, when Spirit emerged from the darkness. His black coat gleamed like liquid night. He pressed his forehead against my third eye, sending a ripple of energy through my body.
“You have forgotten how to listen,” Spirit said.
His voice wasn’t human, but it vibrated through me like I’d always known the language.
“Your purpose is to help humans remember—to teach them to speak with us, with all life.”
I woke with a strong sense of being guided by Spirit, but I never could have predicted what would come next.
About a year later, in the summer of 2024, I was invited to attend the World Plenary Gathering of Quakers in South Africa. It was an amazing opportunity, but what sealed my decision to go was an image I saw online while researching places to visit – a photograph of a leopard named Una, a captive female living at a wildlife sanctuary called the Daniell Cheetah Project.
Her golden eyes gazed into my soul, almost like she was calling me, and I knew I had to meet her.
In August, I boarded a plane and flew 18 hours to Johannesburg, where I spent two weeks in deep, deep worship with Quakers from all around the world.
I had a wonderful time at the World Gathering, though I did have a small crisis of faith partway through, which I’m sure some of you can relate to – but that’s a story for another time.
After the gathering, I went to the airport, picked up a rental car and quickly taught myself how to drive on the other side of the road, which was a lot easier in reality than it was in my head, thank goodness!
A few weeks into my trip, I arrived at The Daniell Cheetah Project where I met…
…Una, the leopard from the photo, and Vega, her male companion.
If Una was the sun, Vega was the storm. Most of the time, he was calm, moving through their enclosure with quiet intensity. But at feeding time, the storm would break…
…and he would lash out, snarling and charging the fence, his frustration spilling over.
The keepers dismissed Vega’s aggression, affectionately calling him special while doting on sweet, gentle Una.
But when I looked into Vega’s eyes…
…I saw pain beneath his rage.
One evening, I sat quietly by Vega’s enclosure, reaching out to him with the silent language I was learning to trust.
“What’s hurting you?” I asked.
A flood of images and emotions surged through me—vast, open spaces, the scent of wild grasses, the weight of a world he was meant to belong to and the unbearable ache of knowing he never would.
“I don’t belong here,” he told me, leaning his heavy head against the chain link fence separating him from his freedom.
His grief struck me with the force of a river breaking through a dam as it converged with my own ocean of despair. It was an ancient, aching sorrow that held the weight of generations, of wild instincts caged and freedom taken away. It was betrayal, rage, the agony of knowing his soul was too vast for the bars that held him.
I recognized his grief. I had felt it before—the pain of being trapped in a place that doesn’t fit, the helplessness of having no way out. I had known betrayal, too. I had been hurt by people I trusted, and in some ways, I had caged my own wildness within the confines of fear, expectation, and the silent rules of a world that teaches us to tame ourselves – to trade instinct for obedience, longing for practicality, intuition for logic, and freedom for the illusion of safety.
A world that builds cages not just for animals, but for people – separating families at borders, locking away those deemed ‘other,’ enforcing invisible walls of oppression that tell us who belongs and who doesn’t.
Vega’s captivity was made of steel and chain-link. Mine, like so many others, was built from stories designed to keep us small, afraid, and disconnected from the wildness and freedom that is our birthright.
I could have turned away. But I stayed. I opened myself to him.
I let his grief pour through me, hollowing me out with the unbearable weight of our collective pain as I wept for all the captive souls whose freedom will never be known.
I allowed the dense, excruciating energy to move through me like a current, channeling it down, down, down into the Earth beneath me. I imagined the soil drinking it in, transmuting our pain like rain, holding it in the vastness of something ancient enough, strong enough to transform it.
As the energy moved, something shifted. The storm raging inside Vega softened. His breath slowed. His body relaxed. He leaned against the fence and grumbled his thanks, assuring me that “We can walk together on this path towards healing.”
The following night, I returned to find both Vega and Una waiting for me.
This time, their energy was different—less guarded, more open. They had something to tell me.
I closed my eyes and listened.
What emerged was less like a conversation and more like a marriage counseling session—two leopards, bound together in captivity, struggling to reconcile their reality with the vastness of what they had lost. Vega’s voice, raw and untamed, carried the sharp edges of grief. Una’s, softer, held the weight of quiet endurance.
They told me they were aware that they were expected to breed and posed a heart wrenching question to me:
“How do we raise a child in captivity?”
It wasn’t a question of biology. It was the kind of question that stretches across species, across time—a question whispered in the aching hearts of parents who have been stripped of the ability to give their children the life they deserve.
I heard it in Vega and Una’s voices, but I also heard it echoing through the generations of people who have known forced displacement. Parents cradling their babies in refugee camps, undocumented families fearing the knock of an immigration officer, entire cultures severed from their roots, their traditions, their homelands.
“Will our children ever know what it means to be free?”
I felt the depth of their sorrow, the fear that their children would never belong to the vast, open spaces that still lived inside their blood.
“They will know,” I told them. “Because of your sacrifice.”
I assured them that one day their babies would be released into a protected reserve, free to roam and reclaim the wild that is their true home.
I also reminded them that even in captivity, the wild is never truly lost. It lives in the marrow, in the muscle, in the stories that live in our bones.
And in the same way, the wild within us stirs, moving through us like a quiet rebellion against everything that threatens to confine our spirit.
Two months after I left South Africa, Una and Vega gave birth to their first son, Nico.
Nico’s birth reminded me of a powerful encounter I had with a wild leopard in Kruger National Park.
The leopard was draped across a rocky outcrop, the rising sun painting his coat in hues of fire and shadow. As soon as the vehicle’s engine turned off, he turned his regal head and looked me dead in the eyes as though he’d been waiting for me, like we had a divine appointment scheduled.
In that instant, I felt the invisible thread that stretched between him and Nico, between Vega and Una, between all the caged and the free.
I thought of Spirit, urging me to help humans remember our connection with the wild world.
I thought of Una, calling me across time and space to help her and her mate reconcile their fate.
I thought of Vega, of the grief he carries in his body, and the way it had mingled with my own and our collective grief and poured through me into the Earth.
I thought of Nico…
…born into captivity, but carrying the wild inside him.
And I thought of us—of humanity, of the ways that we, too, have been severed from our wildness.
We have been told that captivity is normal. That we must shrink to fit within borders, within laws, within cages built of fear and control. That the wild parts of us—the instinct, the longing, the untamed knowing—must be buried, forgotten, domesticated.
But I do not believe that.
Because the wild does not die. It waits. It remembers. It calls.
And all we need to do to hear it is listen.
To listen with the ears of our heart.
So, I invite you to transfer authority from your head to your heart and listen to the wild yearning within you as we settle into worship.
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Briana Halliwell is a member of Vassal;boro Friends Meeting. She is a contemplative activist, creative communicator, wandering mystic, and intuitive interspecies communicator who hears a Divine Call to weave the forgotten web of connection back into the places (both personal and collective) where colonizer consciousness has spread the lie that humans are separate from each other and the Earth. Briana is acutely aware of what she calls the “Cosmic Ache” – as an empath and vessel of Divine Source, she can feel in her body the collective wounds of humanity and the more-than-human beings with whom we share the Earth. She is called to help humanity heal from the deleterious effects of global colonization through helping people to reconnect with their innate belonging to the wider Earth community.
Present: Dorothy Curtis, President, Nancy Marstaller, Treasurer, Susan Gilbert, Secretary, Dorothy Hinshaw, Martha Sheldon, Kim Bolshaw.
Cards: For Friends.
Program and Devotions: We took turns reading the Blueprints article “Seeking a New Church Family”, by Lisa Lickel. Scripture Deuteronomy 31:6 “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” Hymn: “In Christ Alone.” Having downsized their lives upon retirement, Lisa and her husband moved to a quiet, rural location and looked for a new spiritual community. They found true welcome in the small local Quaker Meeting and began practicing Quaker worship and values.
Minutes: Susan read the 1.20.2025 minutes.
Treasurer’s Report: Nancy sent $380. to Tedford. We have $100.58 in our account. We discussed organizations we usually give to, SASSAM, New Beginnings, and Wayfinder. We will begin by sending $50. to SASSAM this month.
Tedford Meal: Dorothy Curtis’s Team C will bring the March 3rd 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: Marthaknitted some beautiful hats to be sold at the Meeting House, with proceeds to benefit Woman’s Society causes. We will send this money to New Beginnings. Nancy would like to hold the April meeting at her home in Harpswell.
Nancy showed a photo of Velasco Friends with Mimi Marstaller, Kristina Evans, and Maggie Fiori in attendance.
Dorothy ended the meeting with a quote from Abraham Lincoln:
“I cannot conceive how a man could look up into the heavens and say there is no God.”
Respectfully Submitted, Susan Gilbert
2024 Durham Friends Woman’s Society Treasurer’s Annual Report
Message given at Durham Friends Meeting, February 23, 2024
Right now, as we meet here in Durham & Portland Maine, Quakers are gathered for worship in Gibara Cuba for the closing Sunday worship of Cuba Yearly Meeting. With them are eleven Friends from New England, including Kristna Evans and Mimi Marstaller from Durham and Maggie Fiori from Portland, four adults and three children from Dover meeting and one from Providence meeting.
Friends began worship this morning earlier than we did, and will continue after we close. I am hoping to share, as much as I am able, the experience of worship and of Friends in Cuba.
The church in Gibara is full – everyone has walked to worship this morning- from their homes or from the dormitories. It’s 80 degrees, the front door of the church is open, the breeze off the harbor blows through the windows.
The service begins with song – everyone knows the songs and everyone sings together enthusiastically. Jesu’s band accompanies the hymns. I saw a photo of the band earlier this week at Puerto Padre. This year there is a saxophone, a bass guitar, a drummer and Jesu.
The theme for this years gathering is “a family on a mission” The Chorus is “We are the community of God”. Each year CYM composes a song for sessions. The Verse is Acts 2:42 (Pentacost)
“The Fellowship of the Believers
42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. “
After singing, a pastor will share a message on the theme and the verse: and the community will participate, sometimes interrupting, sometimes agreeing sometimes arguing. As Friends everywhere know, Cuban Friends know that we experience god directly and intimately and that authority rests in that experience, not in the person of the pastor. In Cuba, Friends share during a message, as well as out of the silence.
Judy Goldberger wrote in a recent newsletter from FUM that:
“[In Cuba} I was immersed in communities who KNEW and trusted the constant presence of G*d. Who used their minds and hands and hearts to their full capacity, but knew they were not acting alone, knew they didn’t carry the burden of outcomes.
I’m privileged [in the US]. My intellect knows G*d is by my side, but it’s so easy to fall into trusting the work of my hands, and taking on the burden of outcomes. In Cuba, so much was out of our hands. The power could go out at any time. We might need to pull over and let the bus engine cool off. The pharmacy shelves were bare of western medicines. The doctors couldn’t run basic diagnostic tests.
But God was always with us, revealing Godself through each other, and giving Cuban Friends power. Not mastery, but power. As I return to the United States, where I’m privileged to be able to get what I want instantly, let me remember that. To confuse power with mastery is the road to despair. Let us reveal Godself to each other, in our workplaces, in our communities, with power.
Above the cross, in the Friends church in Delicias, it reads, “The place of Your presence.” And it is also everywhere I walk.
[As Jorge Luis , clerk of CYM said} “Somos seres humanos, no somos angeles.” (We’re human beings, we’re not angels.)
Back in Boston after eight days with Cuban Quakers, I don’t even know where to begin. G*d was truly as close as our breathing and moved among and through us. I was witness to the deep joy and deep heartbreak that Cuban Friends live with every day. I miss them already and my heart is a little larger now.” —Judy Goldberger, New England Yearly Meeting
I hear in Judy’s reflection a meditation relevant to the verse that has been at the center of worship during sessions: Acts 2:42, The Fellowship of the Believers
42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. (the passage continues) 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts.
This verse comes after the community has experienced the spirit descending upon them at Pentecost. They have been drawn together, have spoken in many languages and understood each other, have been mocked by the community and have been formed into this fellowship of believers. Judy’s description is a description of a community that has been formed into such a fellowship and that is gathering today praying and feasting together.
I’ve sat with the theme “a family on a mission”.
One of the realities in Cuba now is that everyone has had people they love leave the island. They cannot return and they cannot be visited. Caring for family is complicated. The Cuba Friends are wrestling with how to remain in relationship with those they love who are absent. How to include them in the fellowship of believers. –
We in our country are living through a time where those we love are being targeted, because of their identity, their heritage or their job and it is unclear if we can protect them. My daughter works for USAID and she has been called a criminal, a lunatic and corrupt by rich and powerful men. How do we enfold those we love who are in harms way into the power of our fellowship of believers. In Judy’s reflection she links both the deep joy and the deep heartbreak that Cuban Friends live with as part of their experience of God moving among them. That stretches me – Do I recognize the deep heartbreak that I live with as part of God moving through us? This theme – “a family on a mission” has felt particularly tender both in the lives of Cuban Friends and in our communities.
After the message the children will lead the gathered community in song. There are a lot of children, singing and dancing enthusiastically. The whole congregation is singing and dancing with the children. The Epistle from CYM to Friends everywhere will be read, any new pastors will be installed and any retiring ministers or elders will be honored. The clerk will offer a prayer at closing and the whole community will gather for a luncheon feast. Local Friends will walk home, Friends from other meetings will crowd into whatever transport have been found to return home and the New England Friends will go to Holguin Airport and catch the 3:00 flight to Miami.
Revival Sing: ”When the world is sick, ain’t nobody feeling well, and at camp we’re so beautiful and strong.”
Queries: What have we experienced as a community that has forged us into this fellowship of believers, who gather and pray together and break bread together?
Do we know the feeling of the power of God’s presence among us, how do we recognize this and not mistake mastery of our hands and the authority of the world for the power of God’s presence?
Present: Dorothy Curtis, President, Nancy Marstaller, Treasurer, Susan Gilbert, Secretary, Kim Bolshaw.
Cards: For Friends
Program and Devotions: We took turns reading the Blueprints article by Jill Jay, “God Speaks, Do I Listen? Philippians 4; 6-7 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. A single mother of 3, Jill had a deep commitment to help young children with learning. Through many challenges, she continued her own education, and learned ways to make a great difference in children’s education. Looking back, she observed her own growth in learning to listen and trust what God had to tell her.
Minutes: Susan read the 12.16.2024 minutes.
Treasurer’s Report: Nancy said we have $535.58 in our account. $430. was raised from the silent auction, and will be sent to Tedford Housing.
Tedford Meal: Nancy’s team B provided ham, mac and cheese, milk, fruit and dessert. The February 3rd meal, brought by Sarah Sprogell’s Team C, will include both meat and vegetarian chili, cole slaw and corn chips. Durham Friends provide a meal 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: There will be a meeting of the Northeast Regional USFWI on February 22 at 9 AM. A Zoom link will be provided by Marion Baker. There will be three speakers. The theme is how to help younger people in their ministry. The organization needs a treasurer.
Dorothy ended the meeting with a quote from Elvis Presley: “Values are like fingerprints, nobody’s are the same but you leave ‘em all over everything you do.”
Thursday, March 20, 2025: Make a Hand Broomwith Ezra Smith(please pre-register)
5:30-6:30 Learn How to Make a Hand Broom with Ezra Smith
Advance sign up required. Space is limited to 12, then we start a waiting list. Email Craig@Freshley.com to reserve your spot.
All supplies provided. $10-$20 donation is collected on site.
Ezra is a woodworking teacher at Maine Coast Waldorf School.
6:30-8:30 Maker Cafe with Live Music by Fanning the Breeze
Free and open to the public. No sign up required.
Bring a project to work on. Some knitting, stitching, writing, reading, drawing, coloring, carving, or whatever you want. And if you don’t bring a project that’s okay too.
Fanning the Breeze is Michael Fenderson and Bobbi Goodwin. They are two teachers who love sing-alongs and anything that pulls community together for good work and fun! They were recently spotted at the annual Thompson’s Ice cutting day in South Bristol.
5:30-6:30Make a Hand Broomwith Ezra Smith
All supplies provided (donation collected on site).
Advance sign up required. Email Craig@Freshley.com to reserve your spot.
6:30-8:30 Maker Cafe
Live Music Fanning the Breeze
Hot drinks, snacks, and light supper available. All ages, genders, and beliefs welcome. No Charge for thr Maker Cafe, donations welcome
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Please bring a project of your own to work on. Some knitting? Mending? Painting? Sculpting? Crafting? Carving? And if you don’t bring a project, that’s okay too.
Please don’t bring your phone or other screen-based devices. This is an offline place where we try to connect with
Durham Monthly Meeting of Friends met for the conduct of business on Sunday, February 16, 2025, with 15 people in attendance by Zoom.
1. Meeting Opening:
Clerk opened the meeting with a prayer by Howard Thurman.
Open unto me — light for my darkness
Open unto me — courage for my fear.
Open unto me — hope for my despair.
Open unto me — joy for my sorrow.
Open unto me — strength for my weakness.
Open unto me — wisdom for my confusion.
Open unto me — forgiveness for my sins.
Open unto me — tenderness for my toughness.
Open unto me — love for my hates.
Open unto me — Thy Self for my self.
Lord, Lord, open unto me! Amen.
2. Approval of Minutes of January 2025 – Ellen Bennett
Meeting approved the January minutes.
3. Ministry and Counsel — Renee Cote
After positive responses to retreat, the M&C proposes holding another retreat in September. This will be discussed again at a future meeting.
Brown Lethem is asking to transfer his Meeting membership to Claremont.
It was proposed that April’s monthly meeting for business be moved from the 20th, which is Easter, to the 27th.
Meeting approved moving the date of meeting for business.
4. $2000 Gift allocation — Nancy Marstaller
The Meeting received a $2,000 gift from Rachel Kerry. She expressed a desire that the money support people who are affected by the ways in which our government is no longer funding organizations, e.g., immigrants and refugees, LGBTQ+, Women’s shelters, etc. The money may be given to more than one organization.The suggestion was made that a portion of the funds go to domestic violence survivors. Several people spoke in support of giving to MEIRS today, the need being immediate. Clerk proposed giving $1,000 to MEIRS today, and return next month to discuss allocation of the remainder.
Meeting approved this proposal.
5. Trustees Report — Sarah Sprogell
Please see attached report. Gratitude was expressed for the ongoing work of Trustees.
6. Peace and Social Concerns — Ingrid Chalufour
Please see attached report. Note that while the mission of the committee is unchanged, the focus of the committee has shifted some of its attention to participating in the Portage Mapping Project in Brunswick.
The fourth Sunday book group that started last month is continuing and is a benefit to the meeting. Please notes that this is an activity that could be overseen by any group or committee.
The Social Justice Book project may be affected by the decrease in funding from the US Department of Education.
7. Finance Annual Report — Doug Bennett
Please see attached report. There are four points to keep in mind regarding Meeting finances:
We are very good at budgeting. We spend what we say we’re going to.
We make other expenditures, as well as receive income that are “off budget” e.g., spend money from the capital account, charity account, from the Sister City account, etc. We should try to come up with a framework for these expenses.
Weekly contributions counted towards our operating revenue are down significantly. 73% of income came from weekly contributions and automatic deposits in 2018. That is down to 48% this year, a decline of 26%. Making up for this, not quite half of our income is coming from our investments.
The total financial value of our Meeting is about $950,000.
Cemeteries, which are budgeted and managed separately, are also in good financial shape.
Suggestion was made that the Meeting articulate to all the importance of weekly contributions. Start passing the plate again!
8. Makers Cafe update — Ellen Bennett. Craig Freshley
Good session last month with Nancy Marstaller, and excited about this upcoming session with Emily Bell-Hoerth. We welcome ideas! It’s all about building community. And we are all grateful.
9. Other business
An observation: Recently we’ve had visitors to the Meeting who are interested in finding out more about Durham Friends. Things are “bubbling” around us.
For discussion at the next meeting for business, Meeting member Joyce Gibson offered the following:
1. She now has time to be more engaged in the meeting, 2. is missing adult Christian education, 3. and is interested in documenting who we are as a Meeting and our Quaker history. She is asking M&C to think about how we might approach furthering our education about who we are as Quakers and would like others to work with.
Clerk ask that we close with prayers of gratitude and hope, and reread the Howard Thurman prayer.
Respectfully submitted, Ellen Bennett, Recording Clerk
Agenda for February 16, 2025 Durham Friends Monthly Meeting
1. Decide if we want to continue to meet today or postpone until next week (considering if people have power and any are able to join by zoom) – Clerk, Nancy Marstaller
3. Ministry & Counsel report- Tess Hartford or Renee Cote: action item, move monthly meeting in April to the 27th, as the 20th is Easter
4. Nancy Marstaller- $2000 has been gifted to the Meeting specifically to use for people in this area who are struggling or may struggle due to our government’s policy changes, especially for work with immigrants and refugees, LGBTQ people, or those who’ve suffered domestic and/or sexual abuse. Several people have suggested the Maine Immigrant & Refugee Services, as they have lost federal funding. We do not have to give all to one group. Looking for suggestions and possible action.
5. Trustees Annual report- Sarah Sprogell, no action item
6. Peace & Social Concerns annual report- Ingrid Chalufour, no action item
7. Finance Annual report- Doug Bennett, no action item
**Live Music by Craig Freshley and Frederik Schuele
5:30-7:00Learn How to Make a Shashiko Embroidered Patchwith Emily Bell-Hoerth
All supplies provided ($7-$14 donation collected on site). Bring your clothes to mend! And sewing tools you may have. Mending helpers will be on site to assist with all mending projects.
Advance sign up required. Email Craig@Freshley.com to reserve your spot.
6:30-9:00 Maker Cafe
Live Music by Craig Freshley and Frederik Schuele
Hot drinks, snacks, and light supper available. All ages, genders, and beliefs welcome. No Charge for thr Maker Cafe, donations welcome
+++
Please bring a project of your own to work on. Some knitting? Mending? Painting? Sculpting? Crafting? Carving? And if you don’t bring a project, that’s okay too.
Please don’t bring your phone or other screen-based devices. This is an offline place where we try to connect with what we’re doing and who we’re with.
Celebrate the vital & varied ministries of younger Quaker women!
Winter Zoom GatheringofUnited Society of Friends Women International—Northeast Region
22nd of February, 2025, 9:30am to 12 noon Eastern Time
Join us for a panel of younger Quaker women with ministries,as we explore
“Lifting Up Younger Quaker Womenas They Live Into Their Sense of Call”
A Panel Moderated by Emily Provance of NYYM, with:
• Briana Hallowell from New England YM,
• Nicole Bennett Fite from New York YM, and
• Sussie Ingosi Ndanyi from Nairobi YM.
They will share the ways they have felt led by the Spirit todo an amazing variety of ministries, how they experienced their call, how they were supported to follow their leading, and ways older Friends can help lift up younger Quaker women.
Schedule: (all times EST)
9:30am Zoom opens for informal sharing/greetings
9:40am Devotions led by Pastor Janice Ninan of NYYM and translated into Swahili by Pastor Joyce Machaha of Nairobi YM
10:00am Introductions led by Marian Baker-NEYM
10:05am Panel – moderated by Emily Provance-NYYM
11:05am Small breakout groups sharing what arose during the panel
11:40am Singing in multiple languages led by Congolese Women
Please join us for a Meeting-wide retreat, open to all, on Saturday, February 8th beginning at 9 a.m. and ending no later than 3 p.m.
With worship, small group discussion and artistic expression, we will examine how to prioritize the work and good functioning of the Meeting given our current numbers, and reaffirm our commitment to one another as a Meeting and as Friends. And have fun in the process!!
Lunch will be provided.
It is a great opportunity to listen and learn together and to connect with our beloved community. If you can only come for part of the day, just come!! We welcome you!
Please let us know if you will attend by emailing durham@neym.org. Everyone is needed!
On January 25, 2025, Friends from Brunswick, Durham and Portland and one visitor gathered in person at Portland Friends Meeting and on zoom.
Those present shared news of and celebrated our community as meetings and as the community Friends in Southern Maine. We gathered with bagels, coffee and tea, and had lunch together.
The bulk of the morning was an exploration of what is required of us in these times. The facilitators noted that three themes informed the planning of the morning activity. These were i.) that all of us are impacted by what is happening in our country, ii.) that we need each other – that we are stronger together, and iii.) that in considering what is required of us, the language from Micah 6:8 “[What is required is] to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God” is more relevant than language of “callings” or “leadings”.
There were moments of discomfort as we named our economic class which is one variable which impacts how we are affected, and moments of celebration as we recognized all the ways we are already doing service. We concluded with an exercise of finding our path by gathering into four groups drawn from an article by Daniel Hunter which had been shared in advance. The groups were “Protecting People”, “Defending Civic Institutions”, “Disrupt and Disobey.”, and “Building Alternatives”.
Before Lunch Andy Granell shared that in his work for a book about the history of Quakers in Maine he had been reading the collected archives of Falmouth Quarter. There is an almost complete record of the quarter since it’s inception in the 1700’s.
After lunch we regathered to participate in a facilitated Visioning Session to provide our input on the future planning of NEYM Annual Sessions. The invitation was to engage in a conversation about how our Yearly Meeting’s practice of corporate discernment, our relationships with other Quakers, and our use of limited resources can most meaningfully contribute to the spiritual thriving of Friends across New England.”
Using materials provided by the NEYM Sessions Visioning Group and facilitated by Leslie Manning of Durham, a former clerk of the Sessions Committee, and Marian Dalton, Brunswick, the current Yearly Meeting treasurer, those present shared their experiences of sessions, and their hopes and desires going forward. Notes were taken and will be shared with the quarter separately. The notes will also be sent to the NEYM staff to incorporate into their work.
A theme that was present throughout the day was that these times are unprecedented and challenging and will require a deeply faithful response individually and corporately.
Fritz Weiss, Wendy Schlotterbeck, Mimi Marstaller and Leslie Manning
Durham Monthly Meeting of Friends met for the conduct of business on Sunday, January 19, 2025, with eleven people in attendance at the Meetinghouse and three by Zoom.
1. Meeting Opening:
Clerk Nancy Marstaller opened the meeting with a reading by Thomas Kelly. And the third step in holy obedience, or cousel, is this: If you slip and stumble and forget God for an hour, and assert your old proud self, and rely upon your own clever wisdom, don’t spend too much time in anguised regrets and self-accusations, but begin again, just where you are. Yet a fourth consideration in holy obedience is this: Don’t grit your teeth and clench your fists and say, “I will! I will!” Relax. Take hands off. Submit yourself to God. Learn to live in the passive voice — a hard saying for modern man — and let life be willed through you. For “I will” spells not obedience.
2. Approval of Minutes of December 2024 – Ellen Bennett
Meeting approved the December minutes.
3. Rotation of Clerks
Clerk reviewed the rotation of Clerks through 2025.
Nancy Marstaller: January, February, March
Sarah Sprogell: April, May, June
Tess Hartford/Renee Cote: July, August, September
Ingrid Chalufour: October, November, December
4. Nominating Report — Wendy Schlotterbeck
Regarding term limits, for this year, people will be asked if they would like to continue their committee work through 2025. Going forward, three-year terms will resume with people being asked at the end of each term if they would be willing to continue. This is an issue that will be talked about at the retreat to be held February 8th.
Additional retreat topics will include the number of standing committees, Meeting priorities, and how we can best continue our work and meet our needs without overtaxing people.
The full list of position and committee responsibilities within the Meeting was read. Please see attached.
Meeting approved the list of Meeting members, committee assignments, and responsibilities for 2025.
Meeting approved the addition of Martha Hinshaw-Sheldon as member of the nominating committee.
Note: If anyone has suggestions about the upcoming retreat, please contact Renee, Tess or Leslie. Further information about the retreat will be added to the Meeting website.
5. Clerks Group Meeting Care Coordinator Recommendation.
As approved at the December Meeting for Business, the clerks’ group met and agreed to bring forward the recommendation that the position of Meeting Care Coordinator continue through 2025.
Meeting approved the clerks recommendation, with gratitude.
6. Ministry and Counsel — Tess Hartford
The position of Meeting Care Coordinator (MCC) was reviewed.
The MCC Oversight Committee consists of representatives from M&C, the Communication Committee, and Peace and Social Concerns: Renee Cote, Doug Bennett, and Ingrid Chalufour.
The MCC Care and Accountability Committee consists of Linda Muller, Martha Hinshaw Sheldon, and Joyce Gibson.
Meeting approved a process reviewing and approving the MCC position at the December meeting — first to have M&C review and recommend the continuation of the position itself, and second to have the Oversight Committee recommend an individual to take on the MCC responsibilities.
Meeting approved the proposal for M&C make its recommendation no later than November.
Meeting approved the proposal for the Oversight Committee to make its recommendation no later than November.
Meeting approved Leslie Manning continue as MCC for 2025
The ability of Meeting attendees to hear what is being said was discussed. The recommendation was made to start with a podium microphone to see if it is adequate to address the issue of being heard, both in the meeting-room as well as on Zoom. It was also noted that speakers need to be reminded to speak within the circle outlined on the floor, not down or into a book, and to project. It was agreed to test a podium mike at the 1/27 meeting, which while unprogrammed, may give us a sense of the usefulness of a microphone.
7. Makers Group Report — Doug Bennett
Mission of Makers Group was discussed, reinforcing its goal of outreach to the wider community, providing a screen-free place to interact and enjoy broadening our community of friends.
8. Peace and Social Concerns — Ingrid Chalufour
Ingrid read the report.Please see report.
9. Trustees — Sarah Sprogell
Please see report. Clerks recommended giving prior approval to Trustees to give the piano to another person if so asked.
Meeting approved this recommendation
Sarah Sprogell remains the contact for cemetery issues.
10. Finance Committee — Nancy Marstaller
There was no monthly report. The annual report for 2024 will be brought to the February Meeting.
Respectfully submitted, Ellen Bennett, Recording Clerk
Friends gathered at Dorothy Curtis’ Home for the Annual December Meeting and Christmas Party.
Present: Dorothy Curtis, President, Nancy Marstaller, Kim Bolshaw, Linda Muller, Wendy Schlotterbeck, Krisna Evans, Theresa Oleksiw. On Zoom: Susan Gilbert, Secretary.
Cards: Kim will send cards to Friends.
Program and Devotions: Dorothy read a children’s book to us, “Why Christmas Trees Aren’t Perfect” by Richard H. Schneider. Set in the Carpathian Mountains, the author gave human traits to evergreen trees. In beautiful perfection, each tree desired to be cut and placed in the castle for the Queen. One little tree sacrificed its’ beauty and stretched branches to hide a rabbit from wild dogs, gave a wren cover in a storm, and was food for a starving fawn. In this process, the tree’s form became irregular. The Queen, at first critical, acknowledged that living for others made one beautiful in the eyes of God, and chose the little pine for her Christmas tree.
Minutes: Susan read the 11.18.’24 minutes written by Nancy Marstaller.
Treasurer’s Report: Nancy paid $60. in dues to the Northeast America region of USFWI. Our account has $180.58. The $80. proceeds from our silent auction will be given to Tedford Housing.
Tedford Meal: Team A, lead by Kim Bolshaw, brought rotisseried chicken, carrots with ranch dressing and ice cream. January’s dinner will be made by Team B, led by Nancy Marstaller. Durham Friends provide a meal on the first Monday of each month. Contributions of food or money to buy food for the meal are always welcome.
Other Business: Linda Muller reported that the mitten tree yielded 4 hats, 30 pairs of mittens, I scarf, 1 pair of gloves and 1 pair of socks. This was delivered on 12.21for the 12.22 annual Wabanaki solstice gathering as gifts for their youth group. Nancy would like to host another meeting at her home, in March or April. We discussed how the WS could contribute to the Maker’s Night.
Dorothy ended the meeting with a reading from Phillipians 44:
Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice.
After the meeting, names were drawn for our gift exchange, and cookies and tea were enjoyed amid conversation and laughter.
Message given at Durham Friends Meeting, January 12, 2025
Christmas is mostly behind us, now. I had a lovely Christmas, and I hope you did, too. And because Christmas is a time of giving and receiving gifts, I’ve been thinking about gifts.
It started with thinking about the three Kings. This past Monday was the day they finally arrived to present their gifts to the baby Jesus — or at least that’s the day we celebrate their arrival. A few days later, I imagine, the Magi are still making their way home – and going there by a longer route to avoiding telling King Herod about the location of the Messiah – having been warned in a dream.
And I’ve been thinking about The Other Wise Man, a fictional character Henry VanDyke dreamed up in 1895. VanDyke imagined a Fourth Wise Man who sets out to join the three others. This one – his name is Artaban – carries a sapphire, a ruby and a pearl to give to the Messiah. Time after time his journey is interrupted by some person in need. And to help them, he gives away his gems, one after another. He doesn’t catch up with Jesus until he himself is impoverished, and it is years later. It turns out he encounters Jesus, finally, only at the Crucifixion. And he hears a voice say, “Verily I say unto thee, Inasmuch as thou hast done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” [Matthew 25:40] This Fourth Wise Man realizes his gifts have been received and accepted. Artaban never gave the gems to Jesus, but they were appreciated all the more. That story was a favorite of my father. He read it to my sisters and I each Christmas.
So I’ve been thinking about gifts. Yes, about gifts like gold, frankincense and myrrh, and, yes, about gifts like sapphires, rubies and pearls.
But much more than that, however, I’ve been thinking about what is a gift, and about what it means to us to give and to receive gifts.
That journey of the Three Kings was two millennia ago. Here in Maine, in the present…
“Present:” that word means “now” but it also means “a gift. Now isn’t that interesting? It isn’t a trick or a coincidence. Both meanings of “present” have the same original Latin root. Do we use the word both ways because our ‘now’ is a ‘present’? a gift? I think so. That’s what’s really on my mind this morning: the present, the here and now, as a gift. But like the Three Kings, I want to take a longer road to that recognition.
As I was saying, here in Maine, in the present, the days are again getting longer. There’s more daylight early in the morning and more again later in the afternoon. In a few months, warmer weather will return.
You know the basic deal. This planet earth on which we live rotates on an axis. One full rotation makes a day. The axis is canted a little to one side. The northern half of the planet is currently tilted away from the sun. That’s why we have shorter and colder days now. The earth revolves around a medium-size star, the sun. One full revolution makes a year. Our planet (and several others) and our sun are part of a much larger collection of stars and planets and other celestial stuff that make up the Milky Way Galaxy. There are billions of stars in our galaxy, and that galaxy is one of billions (maybe trillions) in the universe. All the galaxies are moving outward, rapidly, from some ancient center point when and where there was a Big Bang billions of years ago. Mostly this world where we are is just a lot of rocks and dust in motion, isn’t it?
Still, our planet has life on it, lots of life, including human life. Probably, there is life on other plants in the universe. But only on a tiny percentage of them. That human life on our planet is full of all manner of things: politics and science, gossip and exercise, work and goofing off, eating and sleeping. Courage and wickedness. All of these and more. Because of life, it’s a more complicated, more interesting, more puzzling, world.
What do we make of this world, this galaxy, this universe we live in, with all that it contains, bad and good? For many people – if they think of it at all – it’s just how things are. It’s neutral. It just is. It’s odorless, tasteless – meaningless. Sometimes the ways things are delights us; sometimes the way things are troubles us. Most of the time, the ways things are doesn’t much catch our attention. It’s just there.
We may think of all-there-is in this neutral, just-there sort of way, but we don’t have to. There’s a choice here. We can also see the way things are (however they are) as a gift. And gifts are special, don’t you think? Gifts surprise us. They delight us. And they connect us better to one another. Gift-giver to gift-receiver.
Every morning I wake up; every morning you wake up, and there is the world laid out in front of us. The world in all its splendor and beauty. Also, of course, the world with all its problems and troubles. It isn’t all frankincense and rubies. When we wake, tomorrow morning, how will we receive that world out there before us? Will we see it as just-what-is? Or will we see it, the present, as a gift?
It’s a choice, and a very important one I’m thinking.
A German mystic once said, “the wondrous thing is not how the world is, it is that the world is.”
Every day, in every way I’m surrounded by people who greet the world each morning in that ‘just-there’, neutral kind of way. It’s very easy – it’s a temptation, I think – to join them in looking at the world this way, this world with its joys and splendors, its brutality and its troubles, its selfishness and its generosity. The common way is to see it as a just-there world.
My New Year’s Resolution this year is to awaken each day to the present, to the gift that is the present. I don’t want to take it for granted. This world isn’t anything I’ve earned; it’s nothing I deserve. This world, this being-here, is a most astonishing gift I can imagine. Even when it’s ugly or painful. I want to live in that present, in the realization of that gift.
I learned to write thank-you notes when I was a child. Probably you did, too. My parents (especially my Mother) made sure my sisters and I wrote thank you notes for each of the gifts we received at Christmas. I now see the importance of that.
But this present, this world-before-us, is a gift from who? Who do I thank? Well, God, of course. To see the present as a gift is to open the door to recognizing Creation and a Creator. To receive this gift is to open the door to seeing the world, the present, the all-there-is, as something special, something sacred. It’s to open the door to being religious.
It’s a choice to see it that way. Today it may be an unusual choice, but it is a crucial one.
And what do we give in return? Gift-giving is mutual. You give to me; I give to you. If God has given us the gift of the present, the gift of the sacred present, what do we give in return? I don’t think we can improve much on the final stanza of Christina Rossetti’s Christmas Carol, which we sang recently as “In the Bleak Midwinter.”
What can I give Him, Poor as I am? — If I were a Shepherd I would bring a lamb; If I were a Wise Man I would do my part, — Yet what I can I give Him, — I can give my heart.
Christina Rossetti, A Christmas Carol, 1872
It’s a choice how we see this world: ‘just-there’ or ‘a gift’. Is this world just ‘stuff’, just ‘this and that’, just rocks and dust and living things? Or is this world ‘a gift’ – with possibilities and meanings and obligations? Is this world a secular place, or a sacred place, a holy land through and through?
This gift of life, this gift of the present is the most important gift we receive, and we receive it every day. This gift colors everything. Let us be reverent and thankful. Let us give our hearts.
Mimi Marstaller and Kristna Evans will soon be traveling to Cuba as part of a larger NEYM group to visit Cuban Friends including members of our sister Meeting there.
They will be taking some medicines and other health products with them because these are difficult/impossible to purchase in Cuba. Below is a list of the items they have been asked to bring with them. If you would like to contribute such items, please bring them to the Meetinghouse by February 1.
Each month, we are holding Maker Sessions and Maker Cafes at our Durham Friends Meetinghouse, generally on the the 4th Thursday of each Month. Each such event is publicized on the DurhamFriendsMeeting.org website and also on the MakerCafe.org website.
Here at Durham Friends Quaker Meeting, we’re 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.
A US public health advisory was published in 2023 called Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation. Among many other factors, the report highlights how screen-based technology negatively impacts social connections. Further, the growing political divide has spooked many of us to stay home and not engage with our neighbors. In response to these trends, we’re trying to help people get out and get together more. With neighbors. In our historic Meetinghouse.
Maker Sessions (5:30-6:30) are held prior to each café and require advance sign-up and typically a materials fee. All materials are provided and you go home with something you made.
Maker Cafes (6:30 to 8:30) are free although donations are accepted for the food, drinks, and for the musicians. The Maker Café is run entirely by volunteers. Please join us.
For questions or to volunteer, please contact Craig Freshley: Craig@Freshley.com.
MAKER SESSION: Learn How to Make Prayer Flagswith Nancy Marstaller, 5:30 – 7:30 pm on Thursday January 23, 2025
Advance sign up required. Email Craig@Freshley.com to reserve your spot.
For this session, $5-$10 to be collected on site.
Nancy will provide all materials and instructions. You will be able to take home prayer flags that you made yourself. The Prayer Flags Maker Session will go from 5:30pm until about 7:00pm when the Cafe starts.
CAFE: 7:00 – 9:00 pm on Thursday January 23, 2025
Hot drinks, snacks, and light supper available. All ages, genders, and beliefs welcome. No Charge, donations welcome
Please bring a project of your own to work on. Some knitting? Mending? Painting? Sculpting? Crafting? Carving? And if you don’t bring a project, that’s okay too.
Please don’t bring your phone or other screen-based devices. This is an offline place where we try to connect with what we’re doing and who we’re with.
Brunswick Area Interfaith Council invites one and all!
Notice this will be held on Martin Luther King Day, which this year is also the same day as the 2nd inauguration of Donald J. Trump as President of the United States.
Falmouth Quarterly Meeting will gather on Saturday January 25th at Portland Friends Meeting (1837 Forest Ave., Portland Maine). Friends are invited to arrive for fellowship at 9:00 for a full day together.
When asked: “What do we most need to do to save the world?” Thich Nhat Hanh replied “What we most need to do is to hear within ourselves the sounds of the world crying.”
We invite you to come and share about the life and spirit in your meetings. Our hope is that our entire time together is a time of worship, with laughter, business, connections and fellowship. All are welcome. Here’s the zoom link for those who would like to attend remotely.
The schedule for our time together is:
9:00 arrival, coffee, hot water, bagels and fellowship.
9:30 program – Sharing and exploring, both as individuals and meetings, what these times require. We hope to start by naming what we need, and what are we given. And then move to considering the question: How we, in this time, can do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with Spirit?
11:45 A brief question about the Quarter’s archives.
12:00 lunch & visiting. – There will be a pot of soup. Please bring whatever else you might need or would like to contribute.
1:00 Afternoon Listening and Visioning Session on our yearly meeting’s annual gathering (sessions) Recent years have brought many changes, both internal and external, to the context and circumstances surrounding NEYM Annual Sessions. These include increasing costs, diminished capacity to pay on the part of many Friends and families, reduced and shifting patterns of attendance, increased demand for supportive services and capacities, reductions in volunteer availability, and growing awareness of the need to focus and prioritize limited attention and resources.
In light of all of these changes, the Yearly Meeting’s model of programming, logistics, services, and funding for the event of Annual Sessions is in need of review and reimagining. We will hold a facilitated discussion to inform any future plans.
Durham Monthly Meeting of Friends met for the conduct of business on Sunday, December 15, 2024, with twelve people in attendance at the Meetinghouse and four by Zoom.
1. Meeting Opening:
Ingrid Chalufouropened the meeting with a moment of silence, followed by the introduction of guest Shirley Hager. Shirley joined the meeting to answer questions about a proposed Wabanaki Elder in Residence Program. There was a question about role of the University of Maine, as an institution, in support of the program. The response was that everyone has been verbally very supportive. Moreover, the institution will take no money for overhead costs. There is a Wabanaki Center on the U. Maine campus that would be the location of the Elder program. Will funding to support this come from the world beyond Quakerism? The plan is to start with Quaker Meeting support, and then expand outward. There has already been funding success from individuals outside the world of Quakers..
Discussion was followed by a reading from Active Hope: What. is Active Hope?
“The word hope has. two different meanings. The first involves hopefulness, where our preferred outcomes seem reasonably likely to happen. If we require this kind of hope before we commit ourselves to an action, our response gets blocked in areas where we don’t rate our chances high….
“The second meaning is about desire…. It is this kind of hope that starts our journey – knowing what we hope for and what we’d like, or love, to take place. It is what we do with this hope that really makes the difference. Passive hope is about waiting for external agencies to bring about what we desire. Active Hope is about becoming active participants in bringing about what we hope for.
“Active Hope is a practice. Like tai chi or gardening, it is something we do rather than have. It is a process we can apply to any situation….”
from Active Hope by Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone
2. Approval of Minutes of November 2024 – Ellen Bennett
Meeting approved the November minutes.
3. Finance Committee — Nancy Marstaller
Last month’s proposal to move $3,600 from checking to the Sister Meeting Fund to help pay for our travelers to go to Cuba, and carry the maximum donation allowable, was reviewed.
Meeting approved the transfer of funds.
The proposed 2025 budget was reviewed, noting changes from last month that included: putting $3,600 in Sister Meeting fund, correcting facility insurance and Quickbooks on line amounts, and removing the cost of binding meeting minutes that will most likely happen in 2027.
Meeting approved the budget
4. Woman’s Society —Dorothy Curtis
Two months ago, a request was brought forward to spend $500 to support the girls’ education fund in Kenya. The request was brought forward again.
Meeting approved the request.
The Memorial Minute for Kitsie Hildebrand was read.
Meeting approved the minute, with gratitude.
5. Trustees Report — Sarah Sprogell
First item brought forward concerns the piano in the Gathering/Community Room. There has been some interest shown in moving the piano to a local classroom. Discussion followed, sharing ideas about the history and potential use of the piano.
The recommendation was made to let this issue season and review it again in January.
Meeting approved this recommendation.
Update on disbursement of Eileen Babcock bequest. The Meeting will now need an attorney familiar with probate court to work on this matter. Please see report.
6. Ad Hoc Outreach Group Report – Doug Bennett
A summary of the first Makers event was shared. Twenty people enjoyed wreath-making and one-another’s company. There are plans for Maker Sessions in Jan., Feb., and Mar. The group debriefed and will meet again before the January event. The next Maker’s Cafe will take place January 23rd.
7. Peace and Social Concerns — Ingrid Chalufour
Please refer to the report. Clerk of the committee lifted up the overwhelming support from the Brunswick Schools’ Chief Academic Officer and Principal for bringing Wabanaki Studies to all 37 classrooms at the Kate Furbish School. This is the early childhood version of the “Peace Curriculum” described by Colman McCarthy:
“Give peace a chance, yes, but why not get serious and give it a place in the curriculum: peace courses in every school, every grade, every nation. Unless we teach our children peace, someone else will teach them violence.”
8. Bob Eaton and Wendy Batson’s transfer request
Meeting accepted, with regret, the transfer to Brunswick Friends Meeting
9. Extending Leslie Manning’s Meeting Care Coordinator work
Clerks recommend extending Leslie’s work as MCC through 2025. Two questions are important to drive this process: Do we want to continue the position of MCC? And if so, who should fill that role? It was proposed that Clerks bring the recommendation this year, to continue the position, and that the MCC oversight committee bring a recommendation to have Leslie continue in this role in 2025.
The Meeting approved this process for this year.
Regarding process, there is nothing in the job description, currently, that indicates the position would be reviewed each year. M&C is asked to consider amending the job description to include regular review and bring it back to Meeting for approval.
10. Other Business/ Clerk Schedule for 2025
Linda Muller is stepping out as Clerk of the Nominating Committee. Best practice is to have at least three members make up the Nominating Committee. Members of this committee are proposed and approved by Monthly Meeting.
M&C has continued discussion about setting aside a day for a spiritual retreat. Current proposed dates are Feb. 8/9. They will be continuing this conversation.
Note that Brown Lethem will ask to transfer his membership to Claremont Meeting.
There was a recent request from a member to share their individual joy/concern to the person next to them, rather than to entire Meeting. Another suggestion is to establish prayer partnerships and re-establishing a prayer box. M&C will consider these requests and bring recommendations.
In lieu of filling the role of Meeting Clerk for 2025, the Clerks’ group propose continuing rotating clerks every three months.
Meeting approved this schedule.
Respectfully submitted, Ellen Bennett, Recording Clerk
