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.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n2. Falmouth Quarter has received a letter from North East Kingdom Monthly Meeting (NEK)<\/strong>, with many links and attachments sharing NEK\u2019s deep concern that it was not right to gather at UMass campus in light of the university\u2019s forceful suppression of an encampment in support of Palestinian rights and in protest of the war in Gaza.\u00a0 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\nWe also received a link to the independent review of the university\u2019s actions, and a summary from the presiding clerk of NEYM of the YM response to NEK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The discussion was serious and wide ranging. The clerk was directed to write a letter to NEK sharing the following observations:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n- We are grateful for their long faithful witness and thank them for bringing their concern about holding sessions at UMass to our attention.\u00a0 We agree that it is important that our vision and our mission be aligned with our actions.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- 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.\u00a0 It is clear that they came to the decision they came to with great care and also with great grief.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- We will miss having their voice at sessions. We need their voice at session and it pains us that they will not be there.\u00a0 We, as the Quakers of New England gathered together this summer will be diminished by their absence.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- 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.\u00a0 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.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- 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.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n- 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\u2019s sabbatical from participating in NEYM is in part a reflection of this history.\u00a0 We urge the YM to do the necessary work of repairing the relationship \u2013 we are all diminished by the separation.\u00a0 Repairing relationships is not accomplished through negotiating agreement on actions, but by deep listening and accompaniment.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- 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.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- 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.\u00a0 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.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- It is not enough to reference our history of responding. What is needed is wrestling with what is required of us now.\u00a0 We hope that in planning our time together in August, this concern is heard.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
\n- It was also noted that UMass Amherst is a large, complicated and clumsy organization.\u00a0 We did not feel it was productive to focus on any disappointment we might have with UMass\u2019s decisions or actions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
\n- 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.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Respectfully submitted, Fritz Weiss, acting clerk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":213,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-quarterly-meeting"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9rLvf-21S","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/213"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7804"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7804\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7805,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7804\/revisions\/7805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}