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Budget Saturday, Sept. 29

Budget Saturday this year is Saturday, September 29, 2007, starting at 10 A.M., at Bulls Head-Oswego Meeting. The proposed budget is on the NYYM Web site in HTML and PDF formats.

Fall Sessions Info

Fall Sessions for 2007 will be held November 9–11 at Purchase Meeting (Fri. and Sun.) and  the School of the Holy Child in Rye, Westchester County, N.Y.  (Sat.). Information and the registration form are here. Further information, including a description of an exciting Youth Program, will be in October InfoShare and posted on this Web site.

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Holding the Earth
in the Light

Radical Quaker Stewardship in the 21st Century

Angela Manno, Fifteenth Street Meeting

Humans are the only species that can fall out of Gospel order.¹ The purpose of religion—re-ligio—is to link us back to our source, so that we may live in right relationship. Native Americans conceive of themselves as the caretakers of Mother Earth. Their ritual life is a way to nurture the Earth and the Universe and serves to bring humans back into balance with the cosmos. Quaker practice is not so very different.

In fact, Quakers are natural caretakers, natural stewards. Traditional Quaker religious practice consists of the in-breath of meeting for worship (and individual “retirement”) in which we seek communion with our source, and the out-breath of lives lived in faithfulness to this communion experience, that is, in right relationship with God and with each other.

As the 21st century opens and we bear witness to the suffering of our planet, a new awareness has emerged among Friends. We realize that while we worked over the past three and a half centuries to protect humans from abuse, in our anthropocentrism, we allowed the very air we breathe and water we drink, the soils that nourish our food, and the genetic structure of the whole life community to be befouled. We have allowed ourselves to enter into a use relationship with the planet, rather than one of mutuality and intimacy.

The issue now is that “Love has been narrowed to the human instead of including the whole of the universe,” writes Thomas Berry. Can we now break free of both utilitarianism and anthropocentrism, to embrace all of Creation?

Recovery from this estrangement from Gospel order requires not only a change in behavior but reconnecting with our deepest roots in Stewardship. Let us remember that the first commandment to Adam was to take care of the Garden. Let us also recall that our Society has a practice of the Stewardship of Gifts, those traditionally defined as ministry and other special gifts such as teaching, art, etc. However, as Lloyd Lee Wilson reminds us in Essays on a Quaker Vision of Gospel Order, we do not own these gifts but, as Friends, have an obligation to nurture them and help them develop into their fullest expression.

In the end, we realize that everything is gift—our very existence: our souls, our bodies, our minds, our talents, our relationships, the Earth, the Cosmos itself. When Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean stood on the bleak and barren lunar surface and looked back at our colorful, living planet, the whole Earth looked to him like the Garden of Eden. This led him to ask, “What do you do with a gift?”

We must now take our original calling to Stewardship to its ultimate conclusion, its most radical form: Stewardship of all Creation. We undertake this task not as lords of the earth, but as servants, as part of creation, for the Earth is our larger body in whom we live and move and have our being. Thus, when we care for the Earth, we are in fact caring for ourselves.

Happily, over the past three and a half centuries, Friends have been carefully developing Stewardship to a fine art. We are right where we need to be, primed to undertake the Great Work of our time, which has been defined as fostering a mutually enhancing relationship with the Earth.

The tools of Stewardship are our Testimonies and we need to apply them to all of creation including stewardship of the soul (the inner world), for it too is part of the Creation.

This is nothing less than a call to a New Covenant with the Earth and to a further exegesis of all five testimonies. This will entail study, research and, as in any recovery program, a searching and fearless moral inventory of where we have been complicit in this violence, and then making amends. There is much work to be done, and Friends all over the world are working to reestablish Gospel order in all of their affairs: the food they eat, the purchases they make, the source of their energy and form of transportation, even revising their spiritual practices.

A first effort would be to define each Testimony if the Earth were taken into consideration. Below are some queries to consider:

• Simplicity—How can we attain our energy through simple, low-tech methods such as solar and wind (vs. “King CONG”—Coal, Oil, Nuclear, Gas)?
• Peace—How might we arrange our lives so as to eat nothing, wear nothing, purchase nothing that is produced by harming self and other beings?
• Integrity—Do we oppose tampering with the genetic structure of any life form?
• Community—Are we ready to acknowledge one single sacred Earth Community?
• Equality—Are we willing to recognize that every being has rights (1) to exist, (2) to habitat, and (3) to fulfill its role within the larger Community of Being?

I’d like to end with a favorite quote, from a talk by Marshall Massey at Friends General Conference in 1987:

What if we practiced once again to look on the winds as God’s winds, the seas as his seas, the soil as his soil and all that happens naturally as an expression of his being? I think I know what would happen: we’d begin once again to experience the world as alive. We’d begin to experience the God who is genuinely immanent in it. … And we’d discover as William Blake did that from the beginning the earth has always been our true home which is also called Heaven.

As a new millennium opens, Quakers are poised to embrace the full the meaning of our testimonies and to fulfill God’s will in the 21st century.

1 “Gospel order is the order established by God that exists in every part of creation, transcending the chaos that seems so often prevalent. It is the right relationship of every part of creation, however small, to every other part and to the Creator.” Lloyd Lee Wilson, Essays on a Quaker Vision of Gospel Order, p. 3

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Rabbits and Community

Jens Braun, Old Chatham Meeting & QIVP

What do we do about the rabbits? In past years, we have not seen the numbers of rabbits that this year are devouring our gardens, jumping right and left from underfoot, or calmly sitting along the roads watching us go by.

Some in our Quaker intentional community say there is a place for guns in our lives. Nature is out of balance and, if we eat what we hunt, shooting the rabbits would be a good thing.

This discussion on what to do about the rabbits is not a light conversation—like today’s weather or the news. It has a context that reaches down into who we are and who we would like to be. It is fundamentally about our relationship with one another and the place of humanity within our emerging understanding of how to live as spiritual beings on this planet.

How so? you ask. We shape the land to fit the houses we want to build. We grow foods focused on industrial convenience with little regard for soil and the organisms being grown. The human objective would appear to be the forming of large swaths of the earth to human wants.

We Friends talk much of being better stewards, of eating locally, of driving less. We see clearly how we contribute to environmental degradation, but we find few real options to not participate in those aspects of societal behavior that are fundamentally destructive.

Our community, the Quaker Intentional Village-Canaan (QIVP), has formulated one of our five main objectives to address our relationship to the earth: “To focus on a lifestyle that is environmentally sound and that attempts to give back to our planet as much as is taken from it.”

The problem is that rabbits show us clearly just how stuck in our destructive ways we are; they interfere with our goals (lettuce and vegetables), and we therefore feel we can eliminate them.

In his book Seeing Nature, Paul Krafel makes the essential observation that life itself supports the possibility of life in a feedback cycle. For example, a rock supports little life until lichen begins to grow and then supports moss. The moss decomposes into dirt and can support grasses, which eventually lead to more soil build-up and bushes, then trees, birds, and mammals.

I began thinking about a revised principle for our community that asks how all our actions fit into this creation of new possibilities and more life, rather than hoping for just a balance and to do no harm. Can we embed our personal and spiritual energy so as to contribute to more “surface area” where life can find yet another niche in which to thrive?

As stated in the Great Law of the Iroquois Confederacy, “In every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations.” For the Iroquois, any vote included an equal vote cast by a representative who spoke specifically for the needs, the survival, and the dignity of those who would live 150 years in the future.

What if within our community meetings for business we always left one of our chairs empty as the representative seat of the voices of the future? What if at Yearly Meeting gatherings we always included an extra chair at the clerk’s table for this voice? And what if the responsibility of sitting in this chair were passed around so that many of us would experience representing what always-has-been and the yet-to-be?

I think such representatives from the future would tell us that we need to develop a completely different worldview. They would discover that we currently depend on the fruits of our labors and ingenuity to produce comfort on the one hand and on the other to alter or even dominate that which we see as undesirable and threatening. They would see that this separates us from what is most important. I can hear them saying that until we lost sight of our relationship with the planet, it was a place of abundance. The very act of our taking control from the earth is what created a vast loss of wealth in our lives—if we understand that wealth is much more than ownership of money and stuff humans have made.

Imagine if our human corporate role were to be a species that consciously and at all times looks to create more surfaces for additional life to flourish and avoids eliminating forms of life even when they encroach on “our” space. Who knows what might happen? My garden produce might be eaten by rabbits at first, but I don’t know where acceptance of this layer of life may lead. If I view the emergence of rabbits as another surface for even more life, who knows the possibilities? This may be a much healthier place to apply our labor and ingenuity.

We cannot merely try to be environmentally sound and give back as much as we take. We (as conscious beings capable of wisdom) must join the many other organisms that give back more than they take. Consciousness of the effect of our decisions through place and time are a necessary part of this. Interestingly, I believe the dignity available to us will increase as we look out for the dignity of those to come.

Our Quaker community is considering a new version of our environmental objective:“To live consciously aware of how our behaviors can make our environment healthier, increase embedded energies, respect the voices of future generations, and lead to new opportunities for dignified interaction with creation.”

There is much work ahead to evolve our mindsets.

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Called Home to a Larger Family

Tom Goodridge, Morningside Meeting

Humans have the unique capacity for self-reflection, the ability to reflect upon our actions and ourselves. This capacity for self-reflection allows us to recognize the consequences of our actions. We can celebrate our accomplishments and grieve our losses. But we have lost touch with the larger Earth community. We mostly communicate only with other humans When we do overhear messages from others (like a tree, frog, or a river) we may discover their pain. We conscious creatures may realize that we are responsible for some of their pain. Humans have participated in the extinction of species, the loss of habitat, the fouling of the air, water, soil, and changing global climate.

The Earth’s pain is too great for anyone to bear alone, yet we are not alone. Deep within us we know ourselves to be connected with the rest of creation. Whatever hurts the Earth hurts us. If we were not so closely connected we could not grieve so deeply. In order to again feel the quickening power of the Earth we must confront her pain. Then we can rediscover ourselves as an intrinsic, conscious part of a great, evolving whole.

Joanna Macy, who is well know for her Despair to Empowerment work with the nuclear issue and a recent invited speaker to Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, coauthored the book Thinking Like a Mountain. The book describes the Council of All Beings that she developed with John Seed when they were fighting to save Australia’s rainforest. The Council is a ritual they developed to help people imaginatively connect with Earth’s other life forms. The Council begins with a telling of the Earth’s ever-evolving creation story. We hear the names of some of the creatures lost to extinction and are given an opportunity to collectively grieve their loss. Later, participants take a solo nature walk; they are invited listen imaginatively for the voice of a member of that Earth community - it could be a plant. animal, or element. Participants then make simple masks to honor the spirit of the plant, animal or element they will represent in the actual Council.

The first Council that I attended was held soon after the initial bombing of Kuwait under George Bush Sr. I had been on a fast to protest the bombing. My father had also recently died. I was in a tender state as I entered the Council. Grieving together in the Council for the extinct species, it felt as if I went below my personal pain and began to feel some of the planet’s pain. The Council helped me to expand my identity with the natural world and to accept my bond with other forms of life. This expanded identity strengthened me and empowered me to make a bolder witness on behalf of the Earth. I needed that strength a few years later when I had to watch the nature garden we had helped developed at a Harlem elementary school bulldozed by the city. I brought that pain to a healing circle at Friends General Conference, and again I felt the power that can emerge from sharing my grief with my community.

Thomas Berry, the cultural critic and ecologian, understands the Earth’s crisis as a spiritual opportunity for human transformation. He invites us into a new relationship with the web of life that he describes as “a communion of subjects rather than a collection of objects.” Berry and Macy are but two of the many voices calling us to a new covenant with the Earth or “to seek an Earth restored” (Friends Committee on National Legislation’s mission statement).

Are Friends called to a new peacemaking withthe Earth? Reconnecting with the Earth could strengthen and deepen our faith community. Our collaborative response to the Earth’s crisis can also advance, or evolve, our community spiritually. Berry calls us to this Great Work. Macy calls our present era the time of the Great Turning. Gathered in worship, Friends can be led in new ways to live upon this old Earth. Called together, we can truly follow George Fox’s advice to “walk cheerfully over the Earth answering that of God in every one.”

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A Table Grace
to Help Me Remember the Earth

Janet Soderberg, 15th Street Monthly Meeting,
coclerk of NYYM Earthcare Working Group

Most Holy, Most Holy,
Thank you for this good food
May it nourish my mind/body, love, and creativity
For all of us on this sacred Earth.

Finally I found the words. I had beentrying for over a year to compose a very brief prayer for mealtimes that would convey my desire to be more active in the healing of the Earth.

I knew this prayer had to be short—or else I wouldn’t use it—but the words needed to suggest a great deal. “Good food” for me means local, naturally grown fruits and vegetables and humanely raised animals. For those of us who live in cities in proximity to a farmers’ market or who belong to a CSA farm (Community Supported Agriculture), farm-fresh produce and animal products connect us to farmers outside the city and to the passage of the seasons—not a small thing in mostly concrete surroundings!

This grace, addressed to the Most Holy, helps me to savor the food I am about to eat and to feel gratitude to the people who grew/raised it. Sometimes, after the first two lines of the prayer, I do a brief meditation on the plants and/or animal products before me. I might thank the young people at Hawthorne Valley Organic and Biodynamic Farm for their flavorful millet sunflower bread and Keith’s Organic Farm for their heirloom rocambole garlic. Not an original idea—native peoples have been doing this for centuries!

A word about my use of the word creativity in the prayer: I am an artist, but I think it is a mistake to identify creativity too much with the arts. Creativity is the essence of our existence—as parents, as friends, as coworkers, and most important as individuals making countless choices everyday that affect the quality of our lives. “Creativity,” in fact, may be the single most important quality we need to nourish in ourselves and others. How else will the great populations of this planet discover how to live together in sustainable ways? In the last line, when I use the phrase “all of us,” I mean it to convey all the inhabitants of the planet—all of Creation.

This grace also brings awareness to the actual eating of the meal. I know that I will have a more reverent attitude toward the food if I consciously notice its subtle flavors and textures. A popular meditation exercise is to eat a raisin with complete attention to the sweet, rich, chewy, juicy experience of taking it into our bodies. This includes chewing it very slowly and, after swallowing it, staying with the rich memory of it still on our tongues.

Three times a day I remember just how much I love our home, the beautiful planet Earth. I improvise on this grace as the Spirit moves me.

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The Hunger, the Need, and Stewardship

Christopher Sammond, general secretary

We are all hungry. No matter how much or how little experience of the Divine we have had, we always hunger for more. No matter how lost we have become, some part of us seems to remember an ancient wholeness, and tries to find its way back there. Goethe said, “What sort of a God would it be who only pushed from without?” Whether our yearning is for something inchoate, we know not what, or for more of what we have experienced as the Divine, I believe that this yearning is that of God within us, seeking to bring us more and more into relationship with the All.

Years ago, when I was at Pendle Hill, I was seeking that connection. I had been attending Friends for four years, but I was still yearning for more than the few glimpses of the Living God with which I had been gifted. I could see that some of the other residents had what I sought; it showed. You could see it. I wanted what they had. Hungry.

photo by Christopher Sammond

I witness this same hunger, this powerful gravitational pull towards deeper life in God, quite frequently when I talk with Friends about their spiritual lives or when working with groups,. I believe that this hunger is good, is the best part of us, is part of our human condition. It is the part of us that remembers wholeness and seeks to find it again.

I also have witnessed an almost equally powerful force, in dynamic tension with this first one: fear of finding what we seek, fear of going too deep, too far, beyond any recognizable landmarks, fear of being asked something outrageous, like “Give all you have to the poor, and follow me.” It is this second force which keeps us always a little hungrier than we would like, always on the edge, but never over it. I believe that this force is also part of the human condition.

You might well be asking, what does this have to do with Stewardship, the theme of this issue? A lot, I think. When we are hungry, but not in touch with what we are hungry for, we seek to fill that hunger with something, many things, anything, to try to alleviate it, even if only for awhile. When we expect other people or things to address this hunger for us, we are wanting what is on the other side of that line that we cross only by giving ourselves more fully into the Divine, without actually doing the work of going there ourselves. I call this being in “the need.”

Bill Taber, teacher at Pendle Hill for many years, referred to these two things, the hunger and the need, as “the Need” and “the needy-need.” When we are not in touch with the hunger, “the Need,” we try to fill that void with people, experiences, and things to address that primary ache. The fact that our culture mostly denies the existence or importance of “the Need,” and twenty-four/seven extols the efficacy of things [or people as things] to fill this void, condemns us to the ravenous consumption which is sucking the life out of our increasingly fragile planet.

The Lakota word for white person was “wasi’chu,” which means “fat sucker.” That nation’s experience of European Americans was that they could, and did, suck the very fat out of the land. It was this cultural characteristic [which to their experience was highly aberrant], and not skin color, hair color, eye color, clothing, etc, which for them most aptly distinguished white people from the Lakota.

If the human race is going to stop sucking the life out of this planet, it will only happen when there is a better alternative than the overconsumption of things as a mistaken attempt to address a spiritual malaise. Many Friends are urging us to examine our lives to see whether or not they bear the seeds of global destruction within them. Yes, we absolutely need to examine our outward lives. But we also need to look within, and examine our lives in the Spirit. Where are we holding back? Where are we in alignment with the force of fear, which would preserve our status quo, keeping us safe, and still in need, instead of responding to the hunger within? Where are we trying to use people or things to fulfill a hunger that only God can fulfill?

Friends have a lot to offer the world at this critical time. Ours is an experiential religion, one that seeks to address our hunger with direct experience. We have developed and refined practices for helping us to live in steady awareness of the Divine while at the same time living our lives fully in the world. Our spiritual practice is a significant answer to much of what the world needs today. We need to deepen in it, becoming “patterns and examples” of living with such a full spirit that we don’t misdirect our hunger in ways that deplete our world. We need to deepen as though our lives depended on it. For in many ways, they do.

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How Does the Stewardship of All Creation
Relate to Our Practice as Friends?

Dale Jacobs, Orchard Park Meeting

Mind the Oneness —George Fox

The social witness that we call our testimonies comes out of our search for Truth—our inward experiences and our understanding of how God works in our lives and in the world. In Silence and Witness, Michael Birkel describes three significant experiences that George Fox had. The first experience is the most often quoted, “Oh then, I heard a voice which said, ‘There is one, even Christ Jesus that can speak to thy condition’, and when I heard it my heart did leap for joy…And this I knew experimentally.” In the second major experience, he learned that his efforts to separate himself from evildoers were misguided in that the dividing line between good and evil ran through every human heart. Fleeing from sinners did not ensure his moral purity, nor did it enable him in relationship with others. In the third significant experience, he felt himself restored to the sinless state of Eden before the first transgression, an ineffable sense of union with God and with creation, the nature of which was revealed or “opened” to him. This state of union with all creation is not mentioned frequently in our times, but it was a significant experience of George Fox.

photo by Rick Jackofsky

So what do Friends have to say about their experiences? I have deeply appreciated researching the lives of Friends and descendants of Friends who, since the beginning of Friends, witnessed to this “state of union with all creation.” This is what I uncovered.

From The Golden Age of Quaker Botanists by Ann Nichols, “George Fox encouraged science and research. Quakers had a relatively radical approach to education and about what education should be—which was not the narrow classicism of the old universities. As a result, there was a great burgeoning of questioning and first hand research.” So early Friends were interested in inward experiences, the Light within, and also what was happening in the world around them. This led them to science and in particular botany and the natural sciences.

Thomas Lawson (1630–1691) was a vicar and welcomed the traveling preacher George Fox to speak to his congregation. That event changed his life as he became one of the valiant sixty. His interest in plants led him to record the names and locations of plants as he walked around the countryside. In time he was asked to tutor the physician son-in-law, Thomas Lower, of Margaret Fell and teach his daughters. According to  The Golden Age of Quaker Botanists, “Thomas Lawson’s faith and beliefs were inseparable from his love of plants, for he saw God in all living things and delighted in their beauty, arrangement and complexities.”

William Bartram (1739–1823), an American, devoted his life to the study of nature. From The Art and Science of William Bartram by Judith Magee: “Despite Bartram’s semi reclusive nature during the last forty years of his life, he was nevertheless the most influential single figure in natural history in post revolutionary America. His knowledge of American birds was unsurpassed by anyone in his life-
time; his plant discoveries were followed up and sought after by botanists; he was also an important mentor to young naturists.” William “was a member of the Religious Society of Friends,” wrote his first biographer, George Ord, “but his religious opinions inclined toward Unitarianism.” William Bartram was a product of the 18th-century Enlightenment and believed that by studying the natural world one discovered God and the meaning of his great plan. For Bartram there existed an underlying force that united the natural world. Science was the study of that underlying force, and William dedicated most of his life to that study. However, Bartram recognized that this well-designed and harmonious natural system contained many imperfections. He accepted that nature was ordered and spiritual overall, but within that order there were contradictions and violence. The imperfections made him question how much this world reflected God’s intrinsic nature. Bartram felt that the complexities could be understood only when seen as part of the whole workings of the universe.

T. Gilbert Pearson (1873–1943), a Quaker born in Illinois and raised in Archer, Fla., was one of the founding fathers of the conservation movement in the United States. As a boy in rural Florida, Pearson spent a great deal of time observing and collecting bird specimens and bird eggs. From Audubonmagazine, Nov.–Dec. 1943, at the time of Peason’s death: “The work of one of the great conservationists of our time is finished, but Gilbert Pearson’s influence will long endure in the movement to which he was devoted, and his memory will be treasured by all who love wild things. Gilbert Pearson was a pioneer. Only one familiar with the indifference to conservation in all but a few states a generation ago can appreciate the work he undertook in North Carolina and the skill with which he guided through legislature of that state in 1903 and later through other southern states, the bill which to many was to be for many years the model Audubon law.”

Marjory Stoneman Douglas (1890–1998) was born in Massachusetts and moved to Miami in 1915 at the age of 25. From Conservation Is Now a Dead Word: Marjory Stoneman Douglas and the Transformation of American Environmentalism by Jack E. Davis off the internet, “Douglas had established herself as an expert on Florida history and the environment in 1947 when she published The Everglades: River of Grass, a path-breaking book that later became the bible of Florida environmentalists. Even Douglas’s antagonists respected her knowledge and foresight. Through many years of lobbying, writing educating, and cajoling, she helped raise the plight of the Everglades to the top of the national agenda, resulting in important state and federal legislation that signified changing environmental policy. Countless honors and awards acknowledged her work as a writer and environmentalist. The one that capped her career was the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor, which she received at age 103. When she died in 1998, at 108, she had become one of the most influential environmental leaders in the last decades of the 20th century. Although she rejected any religious affiliation and died a proclaimed agnostic, she credited her humanitarian values to her Quaker roots on her father’s side of the family. She appreciated the Society of Friends’ support of women’s suffrage, and she admired her own Quaker grandparents principled stand against slavery. In her autobiography, she described the Quaker Levi Coffin, the reputed president of the Underground Railroad, as the ancestor who influenced her most as a ‘free thinker and activist.’ She also attributed her expanding social consciousness to her professors at Wellesley College. One, Emily Greene Balch, a Quaker pacifist and future Nobel Peace Prize recipient, introduced her students to slum conditions in Boston. She did not separate her social activism from her environmental work. ‘My opponents accuse me of caring more about birds and fish than people, but they can’t prove that,’ she declared. She simply believed in balance. ‘If we can save water for people, we can save it for the fish, too.’ She understood the health of the environment and all its creatures as a barometer for the physical—as well as the moral—well being of humanity.…”

Gilbert Fowler White, born 1911 changes the world. From his biography Living With Nature’s Extremes: The Life and Work of Gilbert Fowler White by Robert E. Hinshaw, “Besides being known as the father of floodplain management, the national flood insurance program in the United States, and the founder of an interdisciplinary science of natural hazards, Gilbert White made major contributions to the study of water systems in developing countries, the management and preservation of arid lands, environmental change (including global warming and the threat of a “nuclear winter” accompanying nuclear war), and international cooperation regarding water resources of the lower Mekong, Nile, and Jordan Rivers, and the Aral Sea. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. He changed the world.

‘With no Quaker congregation in St Joseph (Missouri), the Fowlers had joined the Baptist church, but (in Gilbert’s memory, his grandmother) Julia remained steadfastly Quaker, even though she promoted the Baptist faith among her children. Gilbert vividly recalled a conversation with his Quaker uncle, Gilbert, when he was about 10, ‘We were talking about my studies, sports, and friends. Then he asked, “Do you think you will ever amount to anything?” I wasn’t sure what he meant at first. But then I understood he wasn’t talking about doing well at school, or making money after college. He was asking whether I would be honest, tell the truth, and help people. It wouldn’t be a matter of how I would be regarded by others. It would be for me to decide for myself whether at the end of my life I had really mattered.’ ”

Gilbert determined then and there to “matter.” From his grandmother Julia Gilbert he “received, pondered, and retained bits of Quaker history and Quaker beliefs: the spark of divinity in and respect due all humans, the spiritual equality of women and men, the value of nature and the stewardship of natural resources, and the importance of nonviolence in resolving differences.…Julia inspired in her children and grandchildren a sense of global responsibility and responsibility.” As a young man, Gilbert became a Friend.

Life teaches us many things but it is a process, a search for the God inside ourselves and in the world. The more we understand the science and the balance of our relationship with all of life the better we can live in harmony with the natural world. The F/friends mentioned above sought to understand their relationship with the natural world and then used their knowledge to influence others to preserve and wisely use natural resources. The more we understand and respect God’s creation the better our lives and the world we leave for others.

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“Stewardship”?

Anola Gowin, Syracuse Meeting

I dislike the phrase “Stewardship of the Earth,” which seems to me to speak of the Earth in a sense I do not relate to, as property. I prefer the term “Earthcare.”

I have been trying to gather my thoughts about Earthcare, but find that I am writing about healing. The healing of the Earth.

I approach the healing the Earth the same way I approach all who are on the list for the Healing Meditation or Worship for Healing. I center myself in that deep place of quiet worship, where I can feel the connection between me and the Divine. From that space, I visualize the Earth, surrounded and filled with white or golden light. I reach for some feeling connection with Her, or imagine myself laying hands on Her as though she were on a table at the Healing Center. If I am outside, I do lay hands on her, connect physically. I try to get myself out of the way, and be open as a channel for healing, letting the healing energy pour itself through me out onto the Earth.

Holding the Earth, I feel held. Loving Her, I feel loved. In opening myself to be a channel of healing for Her, I feel as though healing energy were being poured out to me as well. As though what I was offering to give was being given back to me tenfold. Strange, wonderful feeling.

I hold the Earth in the Light—in that deep place of quiet where we are connected to the Divine, where we are all connected to each other, that place where we are all one, there we are connected to the Earth as well, we are one with Her. I go there, and hold Her in the Light for Healing.

I am saying “Her” but don’t mean just the Earth as a whole, of course. I mean the Earth and all Her Children. Any of Her Children. All of us, as species or as individuals. Lake. Tree. Goldfish. Bumblebee. Human.

It is plain to my mind that we cannot approach the healing of the Earth, or any part of Her, from our limited and self-limiting human perspective. The Earth and each part of the Earth is alive and aware in a way that most of us do not let ourselves be conscious of. When we approach the Earth or any part of the Earth, with whatever intentions, we need to know that we are approaching a Being who is perfectly aware, and who has Her own thoughts, emotions, intentions. Any attempt to approach and to “do something to” the Earth without that firmly in mind is as lopsided and ill-chosen as if we were doing so to another human.

In approaching the Earth, we cannot hold any part of ourselves aside. We cannot approach the Spirit of a lake and tell it “I want to communicate with you, but only with this tiny little piece of my mind, all the rest of me is private. I want to communicate with only a tiny little particle of who you are. Don’t under any circumstances show me more of you then will fit within these limits.”

That may be the kind of polite conversations that humans have with humans. But it seems not to be what real communication is.

I think that we will find, as we begin to reach out to communicate with the Earth and all Her Children, that we will have to be open to them, totally, and be willing to have them open to us. We cannot truly communicate as fragments of ourselves. Not with the Earth. Not with each other. And as with any dysfunctional family, true communication is necessary for true healing. Indeed, communication and healing both seem to come from the same Divine Source.

I don’t know about the rest of humanity: I know for myself that this concept of the completeness of communication is terrifying—the very roots of nightmare.

There are too many parts of me that I want to hide, even from myself, much more so from anyone else. The thought that there is someone out there, many ones out there, maybe everyone out there, who can see or sense exactly who I am in my totality—that is a terrible and awesome thought.

I have faced it before. Or rather, sometimes I have tried to face it, and more often have taken a quick glance at it over my shoulder as I hurried to find some other thought to fill my mind quick so I wouldn’t have to face it.

But it has been many years since I realized that my concept of the Divine includes the awareness, knowing, and understanding, of the totality of All, and of each individual that makes up that All. And that does not mix well with my need to hide major parts of myself from all eyes and all knowing.

If God sees All, and I am afraid of being seen, does that mean that I am afraid of God? Of course it does. Adam and Eve had nothing on me: Forget the fig-leaves, I went for the plate armor.

But I want in my heart to be able to face God, cleanly, and unafraid. I know in my heart that, somewhere beyond time, I am-have-will face God whether I want to or not. So slowly began the process of bringing all those hidden parts of me out into the Light, where I can see them clearly, until I lose my fear of them and no longer try to hide them from myself or God. I have come some little way with that. Not easy for me. Still have a long way to go.

Slowly I clear myself out. Slowly I learn to be open. Slowly I learn to look at myself clearly, and to face the Light and Love that are what I know of the Divine.

My impression is that many of us have so divided ourselves that we live our lives in fragments and pain. Yet we seem to be created with some memory or response to wholeness, and a capacity to be healed. And the Earth Herself, left to Herself for long enough, seems to heal, as though healing and wholeness were both a natural process and a Divine gift.

God is at work healing the Earth, and all of us, in God’s own time and way. For us to be fellow participants in this ongoing process, perhaps we need to think of “healing with the Earth,” as well as communicating with Her. Going through this thing together, as some great Family.

But I am sure that we cannot continue to think of Her as “thing” or “property,” even if we consider ourselves to be loving stewards of that property. That is what has gotten us into so much trouble in the first place. To change what we have done, we have to change the thinking that caused us to do it.

We need to be able to accept Her, and all that are Her Children, as living, aware Beings.

Let us hold each other, and the Earth, and all we love, in the Light. Let us go to that deep place where we gather together in Worship, and remain open to Divine Guidance as we seek ways—the right ways, which will do no more harm—to heal the harms that we, in our fragmentation and pain, have wrought.

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Living Up to the (Green) Light We’ve Been Given

A Few Practical Earthcare Resources for Friends

Christina Perry, Rochester Meeting

Many individuals and meetings are coming to a new understanding of their connection with Creation. Whether through newspaper headlines about global warming, mounting evidence of rapid species loss, Al Gore, or increasing discourse on issues of environmental racism and environmental justice—the environment is on our minds and hearts. As we become aware of the perilous state of the planet it can seem like there is very, very much to do, and that it all needs doing right now. Yesterday, even. As I’ve heard many Friends begin to wonder aloud what they can do often, what I hear is some version of the following: “The ecological damage seems so huge…. what can I do to fix it?”

Here a few answers that have I recently given folks.

First: The focus shouldn’t be on ecological damage. Fundamentally, we are coming to understand that a spiritual crisis is at the root of the crisis of the environment. Our abuse of the planet is testimony to our misalignment with what early Friends called gospel order, what we now often call right relationship. In order to put things right we must listen for Spirit and for what we are each called—as individuals and as meetings—to do. That work might look different for each of us depending on our gifts and ecologies. Blessedly though, the work is joyful and, if faithfully carried out, infectious.

Second: Yes, the work is huge and the needs are great—and we shouldn’t act out of fear because of what is happening to the environment. We are of best service when we do that which God asks of us, letting love be the first motion. In this vein, we can be most faithful by taking our new environmental awareness, and accompanying pain, into prayer and discernment, hoping to be given direction. I believe that when we are faithful and begin to turn to the Divine, we begin to order our lives in a way that is healthy for all of Creation, including ourselves.

If we stand convinced of the sacred relationship with earth and convicted that we are very out of gospel order, we must listen for guidance as we begin the slow process of convertingthe patterns and choices of our lives to conform to new truth that we will be shown. As we deepen in our faithfulness we will start to change, and the world will change too.

Third: You? You shouldn’t do it alone! That’s the best part. We have our meeting communities to hold us up, to keep us accountable, and to travel with us. Building community in and of itself is useful. It can lead to a communal sharing of resources to which individual members have access. Furthermore, there are those who have gone before us, making a path by walking a new relationship with earth; many are documenting their efforts and these can be of assistance to Friends and meetings.

Fourth: Repeat 1–3. And see the list of resources below. It is by no means exhaustive, but it should be a good starting point and, hopefully, lead Friends to additional ones.

Quaker Earthcare Witness: www.quakerearthcare.org/

Quaker Earthcare Witness (QEW) describe themselves is the national organization of“American Quakers and like-minded people seeking ways to integrate their concern for environment with Friends’ long-standing testimonies for simplicity, peace, and equality.”with an extensive catalogue of publications and resources that support the efforts of meetings.

Interfaith Power and Light: www.theregenerationproject.org/

Offers a chance for meetings to join their network and an on-line resource for purchasing energy-efficient supplies for meetinghouses.

National Council of Churches, Eco Justice Program: www.nccecojustice.org

Shares resources andcurrentlyoffering a new creation-friendly building guide to support churches in building structures faithfully and sustainably.

Presbyterian Hunger Program: www.pcusa.org/hunger/

US Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) has a very impressive curriculum on food and justice and its connection to the environment. One of the best out there.

What Would Jesus Drive? www.whatwouldjesusdrive.org/

This seemingly whimsical Web page asks some serious questions about the transportation choices we make as Christians in the 21st century.

Unitarian Universalist Ministry for Earth: www.uuministryforearth.org

Full of resources, of particular note is the Green Sanctuary Audit: a wonderful, and practical (!) place to start to look at our meetinghouses and homes to ascertain both our successes and opportunities to grow into more sustainable relationship with the Divine, with each-other, and with creation.

Kristina Perry, a geographer, is a member ofRochester Monthly Meeting. She is NYYM representative to QEW and former clerk of PacYM’s Unity with Nature Committee.

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Stewardship of One Another’s Time

Joan Cope Savage, Syracuse Meeting

As stewards of creation, we know that we ourselves own nothing. We interact with life with reverence for the gifts that we are blessed to experience. Our spirits are blessed to inhabit life in human form, to have consciousness, to have opportunity to learn love and compassion through the mystery of being physical entities for a time. As Jesus explained, those that are born of the Spirit are like the wind (John 3:8), we know not where we came from or where we ultimately will go. We are here, for now, and we give thanks for this moment.

We have before us a spiritual task to learn how to be the wise and faithful stewards who care for others, giving one another their “portion of meat in season” (Luke 12:42).

There can be several tests of stewardship: preparedness, foresight, empathy for others, trustworthy acknowledgment of the bounty entrusted to our care, and the humility needed to give ourselves over to the responsibility. We are caretakers one of another—of human beings, of other life forms, and of beings of all kinds.

Among Friends, some of our practice assists us to be active stewards, while some of our practice fails to move us forward in that direction. The Friends’ process of discernment and testing of leadings are profound tasks of stewardship, caring for the life of the Spirit as it grows in each of us. Caring and clearness committees are stewardship tasks. Simplicity of function in our physical lives can focus resources on the generous and diligent tasks of stewardship.

In contrast, Friends’ practice falls short of the responsibility of stewardship when we dump responsibilities on others, stealing their time and energy, by providing incomplete or confusing information about what we are asking each other to do. We fall short when we fail to be thankful for the abundance we already are given. We need to cherish each other’s time and our own, perceiving our brief time in life as a profound gift. This may help us to embrace responsibility for tasks that spring from the Spirit, and let go of those that do not. As has been observed by some natives and others, the spirit world is true existence, while the material world has many illusions.

“Blessed is the servant, whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing” (Luke 12:43). Each moment, we have a fresh opportunity to be good stewards of the blessings in our care, and to embrace the life of the Spirit even in times of physical difficulty.

 

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Earthcare Message to Annual Sessions

July 28, 2006

Liseli Haines, clerk, Earthcare Working Group

As a wise woman said to me, “I know that you know this, but I am going to remind you. …”

We have been told that we come together in our meetings as a body of the whole. But what is our whole? Is our whole just the people we commune with or does it include all of creation around us, the water and food from the earth and sky that flows through our bodies and the air that flows through our lungs; that nourish us both physically and spiritually? Can we be whole if we don’t honor the body on which we walk? The earth. How can we preserve ourselves or our integrity if we cannot preserve our source?

I know that you know this, but I am going to remind you.

photo by Christopher Sammond

Humankind and the Earth share a common birth, a common lifeblood, and a common destiny. We are an intricately woven community. As we crave friendships and contact with people we crave intimate contact with the earth. How can there be peace in the world if we have not made peace with the Earth, our dearest friend?

I know that you know this, but I am going to remind you.

We are recycling, buying hybrid cars, using compact fluorescent light bulbs, and driving less. Now it is time for the next step. It is time to expand our testimony of love for one another to embrace a radical love for all creation. To feel in our very souls the aliveness of the earth, the healing power of touching, tasting, and feeling the world around us. Knowing that every atom of our being has been around from the beginning of time. The atoms that make up our body have been part of a rock sitting in the sun, a drop of water on the tip of a whitecap on the lake, a mote of dust dancing in the sunlight, our greatest hero and a feared dictator, and will be again. The essence of our equality is that we are all one. All of God’s creation is one. So go outside and greet your brothers and sisters, lie in the grass, watch clouds, caress a white birch, climb an apple tree. Go barefoot in the sand, float in the lake, and sing with friends. Rejoice in rain, listen to crickets, take a night walk, watch a great blue heron fly by, eat wild berries and dance.

I know that you know this, but I am going to remind you.

We are captives of our culture and the society in which we live. We live in our captivity as in a dream. I am here to ask you to think about your dream and to change your dream—to awaken to the knowledge that the very earth is alive and is your respected uncle, your precious newborn child, your dearest friend, your love.

I know that you know this, but I am going to remind you.

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Friends’ Covenant with Creation

Nadine Hoover, Alfred Meeting

…only this, to act justly, to love tenderly, and to walk humbly…
(Micah 6:8)

There is that of the Living Spirit in all creation, not just in people. This is not a new experience of the Divine; it’s a fresh experience of us as part of creation. We are called beyond a perception of human beings as greater than any other life to a perception of human beings as part of all life. Our experience of the Living Spirit flowing through and binding us with all creation draws us into a holy covenant to live humbly, truthfully, lovingly, peacefully, and justly with creation.

We are called into and beyond stewardship, not to be a master of but rather a friend with all life. We pray that we may be gracious and grateful for the life that we take and for our life that we will eventually give. We pray to be guided and shaped by the Spirit in the taking and giving as well as the living of life. May we live a life that speaks: each moment sacramental, each act meaningful, each element and organism revered.

We seek to commune with nature as well as with people; maintain dignity in relationships; be honest about desires and temptations toward greed and alienation; consume other life forms in a manner that values the intrinsic grace of and continued survival of all life forms; lay down prejudices; peacefully coexist; and end human abuse and warfare against nature.

Early Friends were mocked for treating their animals as well as their children and keeping their barns as clean as their homes. At the same time, early Friends felt that white men had dominion over and responsibility for the care of women, slaves, and nature. Quaker history is often hard to face, let alone reconcile.

photo by Christopher Sammond

Many Friends treat women and people of all descents fairly and with dignity. Yet even during Quakers’ extensive involvement in the underground railroad, many meetings succumbed to pressure to not attend “mixed-race” functions or allow Friends of African decent into the meeting room or membership. Even today we often pretend that prejudice does not exist in the face of its presence.

Just as we need to declare the transatlantic slave trade a crime against humanity, so also we must declare our current lifestyles a crime against humanity—and against our faith. In Lhokseumawe, North Aceh, Indonesia, I have seen glass banks and fancy cars circling huge ExxonMobil and Arun Natural Gas facilities, while military people guard the entrances to their compounds and leprosy runs rampant in every surrounding village. Today it costs 39 cents for the medicine to cure leprosy for one person or child. We know we must change; the problem is, the consequences of our actions are not in our faces every day.

So, we begin to comb our lives and hold every aspect of our lives to higher tests: less trash, less transportation, more relationship with the places of extraction and the people who produce, use currency generated in the community of exchange and corporations that acknowledge they’re not persons nor their charters contracts. The wolf wears sheep’s clothing—comfort, convenience, and power. As Amnesty International noted, paraphrasing Edmund Burke, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for enough good people to do nothing.”

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Extracts of Minutes of the 312th NYYM Session, Summer 2007

• Full text of the minutes is available on this site in HTML and PDF.

2007-07-1 . . . Ernestine Buscemi (Morningside), Clerk of New York Yearly Meeting…told us of our theme this year of “Stewardship,” saying, “How we treat this Earth and its inhabitants is a basic part of our relationship with God.” She noted that we Quakers “carry in our souls the power to create the world we want to see.” And she asked that our time together be an exploration of stewardship and faithful community.

2007-07-15. Melanie-Claire [Mallison, clerk of Nurture Coordinating Committee] introduced Margaret Obermayer (Binghamton Community Friends), from the PoGo Working Group, which is developing a program to offer youth retreats for 6th to 9th graders in their home regions. The Working Group envisions a project in which four young adult friends (18 to 25 years old) will live in a deeply spiritual intentional community in which they can help each other and the wider community grow and prosper in the Spirit. The young adult friends would serve an internship of about two years, during which time they would deepen their Quaker faith, improve their leadership skills, and receive mentoring from Friends in the local monthly meetings.

2007-07-18. Melanie-Claire introduced Mary Rothschild (Brooklyn), coconvener of the Task Group on Youth. Mary noted that although the Religious Education Committee was laid down several years ago, innovative programs at the monthly, quarterly and regional meeting levels have continued or sprung up in the intervening period. The Task Group needs to know what resources meetings have to offer and what meetings need.…Mary asked us to consider…what a yearly meeting would look like if it had the youth woven into its fabric, and asks that Friends hold the question: “What about the youth?”

2007-07-23. Paula McClure (Montclair), clerk of General Services Coordinating Committee, reminded Friends of the charge of the General Secretary’s Task Group to evaluate the position of General Secretary based on the first three years’ experience. She also recalled that the Task Group presented its report for first reading at the 2007 spring sessions.…Paula introduced Julia Giordano (Bulls Head-Oswego) of the General Secretary’s Task Group, who summarized the report, and its recommendation that the position of General Secretary be continued, with the same job description. Friends approved the recommendation.

2007-07-24. Paula brought the name of Christopher Sammond to continue to serve as General Secretary. Friends approved.

2007-07-37. Deborah Wood (Purchase), clerk of the Ministry and Counsel Coordinating Committee…introduced Bowen Alpern (Scarsdale), clerk of the Task Group on Racism in NYYM. Bowen began by quoting Paul: “Among you, there is neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians, 3:28), and said that though NYYM aspires to be a place free of the deadening weight of racism that pervades the wider culture, we are not there yet. He reviewed the mission of the Task Group: to promote racial healing; to raise awareness of white privilege; to increase racial diversity; and to help end racism. He spoke about the Meetings for Worship for Racial Healing and other activities during this annual session.…The Task Group is planning a series of weekend retreats/workshops, entitled “Becoming the Beloved Community,” with the first scheduled for December 14-16, 2007, at Powell House. He urged us to enter into open and honest conversation about racism and how to end it in our YM and in the world, to make safe space to have this conversation, to resist the temptation “to listen past each other,” to face up to all the implications of the testimony of equality, and to wrestle with the pain “until it blesses us,” saying “Friends, the time has come.”

2007-07-38 . . . [Deborah Wood] reported for the Transition Working Group, outlining proposed changes to revitalize the Yearly Meeting on Ministry and Counsel (YMMC) and the Coordinating Committee for Ministry and Counsel (CCM&C) and bringing recommendations to effect those changes. The Transition Working Group proposed that the YMMC be replaced by twice-yearly gatherings for a full day of extended worship, called “Meetings for Discernment.” These meetings would allow us to listen to how the spirit is moving among us in NYYM, provide opportunities for deeper consideration of concerns the Yearly Meeting has agreed to focus on, consider minutes from monthly and regional meetings that reflect their concerns, and support individual leadings that have been seasoned by monthly and regional meetings. Monthly meetings would be asked to appoint at least one representative to these sessions, though all would be welcome. Additionally, the Transition Working Group proposes three major changes to the CCM&C. First would be changing the name to the Ministry Coordinating Committee. Second would be changing its membership to include one member from each region (two from Farmington-Scipio), three at-large members appointed by the Nominating Committee, and a representative from each committee in the section. Third would be changes in the committees under its care as follows: forming four new committees (Ministry and Pastoral Care, Spiritual Nurture, State of Society, and Worship at Yearly Meeting Sessions), retaining two committees (Conflict Transformation and Traveling Friends Advisory Group), moving Advancement to this section, and moving Bible Study and Epistle Committee to Nurture Coordinating Committee. A detailed written report of these proposed changes has been made available.…additional details will need to be articulated.…

The Transition Working Group brought specific recommendations to begin implementing these changes. On the recommendation of the Transition Working Group, Friends approved:

A. The YMMC is suspended for 2008, replaced by twice-yearly Meetings for Discernment. The first Meeting for Discernment will be held in March 2008 and the second during summer sessions in 2008. The March meeting will be planned by an interim steering committee consistingof the Clerk and the Assistant Clerk of Yearly Meeting, the General Secretary, and the clerks, or their representatives, of the four sections. At that March meeting, a steering committee will be appointed. The interim steering committee will work with the newly appointed steering committee to plan the second Meeting for Discernment. Monthly meetings are asked to name representatives in time for inclusion in the 2007 Yearbook and to consult with the Yearly Meeting Nominating Committee.

B. The Coordinating Committee for Ministry and Counsel is renamed the Ministry Coordinating Committee (MCC). The MCC is to be proactive and responsive in addressing the needs of monthly meetings and worship groups, and to be responsible for administering and coordinating the work of its constituent committees.

C. For 2008–2009, the Yearly Meeting Nominating Committee is directed to nominate three at-large representatives to MCC, and each region shall appoint one representative, two from Farmington-Scipio.

D. Four new committees are established under the care of the MCC: Ministry and Pastoral Care, Spiritual Nurture, State of Society, and Worship at Yearly Meeting Sessions. The structure and job descriptions will be presented by MCC at the spring sessions in 2008.

E. The Advancement Committee is moved from the Nurture section and brought under the care of the MCC.

2007-07-44. The Clerk introduced Frederick Dettmer (Purchase), clerk of Witness Coordinating Committee, who in turn asked Bobbi Sue Bowers (Manasquan) to update Friends on developments since NYYM adopted the minute (2007-04-9) calling for the abolition of the death penalty in New Jersey. A letter from the NYYM clerk and the minute were sent to ninety New Jersey legislators whose districts lie within the geographic area of NYYM. The moratorium continues. On May 10, 2007, the NJ Senate Judiciary committee approved a bill for elimination of the death penalty. The legislature will reconvene in November. She urged Friends to write letters to the governor, to the newspaper, and to the legislature in September and October 2007, and send copies to her.

2007-07-45. Fred introduced Jens Braun (Old Chatham), clerk of the Committee on Conscientious Objection to Military Taxation (COMT), which is currently a subcommittee of the Peace Concerns Committee. Jens delivered a message about the movement of conscience. He observed that the theme of Yearly Meeting is stewardship, and asked “What about the stewardship of our souls?” He invited Friends to prepare statements of conscience and post them on the panels outside the auditorium . . .

2007-07-47. Frederick Dettmer, as clerk of Witness Coordinating Committee, reported that Witness Coordinating Committee recommends full committee status for COMT as the Committee on Conscientious Objection to Paying for War. Friends approved [a minute creating this committee and describing its functioning].

2007-07-48. Fred then asked Shirley Way (Central Finger Lakes) to describe her recent service in Colombia.…In December 2006, Shirley traveled to Colombia with Christian Peacemaker Teams, and in June 2007, she spent six weeks in Colombia, facilitating eight Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) workshops for 103 participants.…

2007-07-49. Fred then introduced Nadine Hoover (Alfred), who described her work with Centers of Conscience in her local community and in Indonesia. She testified that although the work is difficult, when we yield to the Spirit, we receive gifts that bear us up.…

2007-07-50. Friends approved the following minute.

2007-07-51. The consent agenda was presented for approval.

1. Friends approved renaming Representative and Annual Meetings to Spring, Summer, and Fall Sessions.
2. Friends approved placing Junior Yearly Meeting, currently under the care of General Services, under the care of Nurture Coordinating Committee.
3. Friends approved placing the H.H. Mosher Fund, currently under the care of Nurture, under the care of the General Services Coordinating Committee.
4. Friends approved the nominations as posted. Nominations for representatives to the Board of Friends United Meeting and to the FUM Triennial will come to Fall Sessions.

2007-07-53. Continuing in worship, individual Friends responded to a query from the Young Adult Concerns Committee: What is the role of young adult Friends in the yearly meeting body and how can we nurture it?

2007-07-62. Melanie-Claire introduced Herbert Lape (Westbury), clerk of the Advancement Committee…. Herb reported that the committee has been focusing its efforts on finding and supporting individuals who have an energetic calling to the twin tasks of advancement: outreach and renewal.…Advancement is offering models for improving outreach. The committee has brought Friends together to share their spiritual grounding for the work and their experiments with outreach techniques (such as T- shirts, business cards to hand out, and displays for festivals).…

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Young Quakes 2007: Living a Revolutionary Faith

October 5–8, 2007
Oakwood Friends School
Poughkeepsie, New York

What is a Young Quakes conference? Young Quakes is interactive workshops, Quaker-friendly Bible study, invigorating discussions, presentations, games, worship and worship sharing, singing, hanging out, and building incredible community. It’s terrific fun, and the content is awesome. It is an opportunity for Young Friends in the unprogrammed tradition to explore with like Friends what it means to live faith boldly today. In addition to all the great stuff we will do together, each Young Friend will be in a “family group” that will meet each day for discussion and worship sharing. Look for registration materials on the web at fgcquaker.org and quakeryouth.org.

Cost: $115 (NYYM Young Quakes who need financial help should contact Helen Garay Toppins at the NYYM office.)

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What About the Youth?

Mary Rothschild, convener, Task Group on Youth

What about the Youth? That’s the question that brought 70 Friends together for a brainstorming session hosted by the Task Group on Youth under the care of Nurture Coordinating Committee at Summer Sessions. While the ice cream on the side may have helped get people there, there was no doubt that many Friends are carrying the concern about how to weave a community that would fully integrate our youth.

Many suggestions were offered, stereotypes explored, and resources exchanged. These results of the first brainstorming session, and a smaller but no less rich one later in the week, will be gathered, organized, and shared.

Some of the questions discussed at the brainstorming sessions and at conversations throughout the week were: What helped you most as a Quaker? What do you want for your spiritual//Quaker development? What would a meeting look like that would totally include you and your family? What forms would help you bring your Quaker beliefs into daily life.

In order to keep the conversation going and spreading, and to distribute information about resources, two vehicles have been developed by the Task Group: a resource page that will be on the NYYM Web site soon at www.nyym.org/nurture/youth; an e-mail list that can be joined by going to www.yahoogroups.com and typing in NYYM_Task_Group_On_Youth in the search window and then clicking on “Join” or e-mailing Kelli Meland-Lewis at kamelew [at] yahoo [dot] com and putting “Join Listserve” in the subject line.

Your insights are needed! Please join the conversation.

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Peace Committee Needs You!

Greta Mickey, clerk, NYYM Peace Concerns Committee

NYYM Peace Concerns Committee has a dynamic charge. The committee is charged to “stimulate and to lead, to explore new and revolutionary ideas, to intervisit and to act, to spread ideas, and to support and uphold Friends in their peace work.” Many individuals and monthly meetings throughout our Yearly Meeting are working autonomously, without a vehicle to connect them to other monthly meetings and Friends who may be laboring on the same issues. Individuals and monthly meetings may be searching for the right concern to focus on and be in need of guidance and resources. It is my hope that Peace Concerns will be active in the work of uplifting, supporting, and building connections with both individuals and meetings throughout our Yearly Meeting. If you feel led to be part of important work as part of this committee or you would like more information please contact me or a member of Nominating Committee.

While we wait to hear from you, the work of the committee moves forward with an invitation to all meetings, clerks of peace concerns committees, and individuals who are engaged in the work of peace to share the who, what, when, where, and why on which you have chosen to focus as well as any concerns you’d like help with. It will take some effort on all of our parts, but I believe that, in the end, the fruit will be a strengthened, more cohesive peace movement as we uplift, enliven, and support our meetings and members throughout the yearly meeting.

Please feel free to contact me with concerns, questions, and ideas at gmickey [at] stny [dot] rr [dot] com 607-243-5668.

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Letters to the Editor

The True Cost of Yearly Meeting

The Earth Care Witness Committee of Rochester Meeting recently showed a video called The True Cost of Food. It was a funny, yet telling film about how food that appears cheap is actually very expensive to produce, package, and ship across thousands of miles. And most expensive of all, the hidden damage such “cheap food” does to the fragile ecosystem we call earth.

That video got me to thinking about other examples of “hidden costs.” The true cost of owning a home, for instance. (Ever tried adding up what you will really pay on that mortgage?) Or the true cost of “free” e-mail. (A computer, the damage to the environment done to make it, electricity bills, telephone bills, and who knows what else.)

Hidden costs are everywhere. Even Yearly Meeting. What does that really cost us? Up front costs, of course, are easy to see. Salaries, rent, utilities, and the like. Those costs we can’t miss because they appear in the budget, right in front of our collective noses.

But as with factory-produced food, there are hidden costs to Yearly Meeting business, too. Those costs we don’t see so readily. Indeed, we may even miss them altogether. Traveling to committee meetings, for example. Or travel to Yearly Meeting sessions. Or going to a Powell House weekend.

Much of those costs don’t appear in the Yearly Meeting budget, in part, because the Yearly Meeting (as a corporate body) assumes folks will not only give donations, but will also pay their way to participate. Unlike many other voluntary organizations, people pay to go to YM meetings where business is done. If people are coming long distances, and they do for YM sessions, that is a significant expense (not to mention time commitment).

For Friends of means, this is just another way to support the YM and they willingly pay to participate in the business it conducts. Many Friends readily choose to give such “in kind” contributions and that is good. Indeed, I suspect the Yearly Meeting would not be able to do a fraction of what it does without Friends’ individually covering these hidden costs. (Housing and travel to Summer Sessions alone would look staggering if added into the YM budget.)

In the past, I’ve asked how this practice of passing on Yearly Meeting costs to individual Friends affects Friends of lesser economic means. I still ask that question, and it needs to be addressed. But right now my question is slightly different. At the moment, I also want to ask, What does the practice of not fully acknowledging the “true costs” of Yearly Meeting say about our witness to Truth? And, secondly, What are the consequences of such a practice?

Think about it. Is it truth-telling to pass on the costs of doing business as a Yearly Meeting to individual Friends? Is it truth-telling to expect Friends of means to subsidize our work together, over and above what appears in the YM budget through their meeting’s covenant donation? Is it truth-telling to do Yearly Meeting business “cheaply” because huge chunks of our costs, and our income, do not appear on our budget or balance sheets? Isn’t that, in effect, doing exactly what those big agribusiness in that earthcare film are doing—passing on our true costs to others? I wonder.

Early Friends witnessed to Truth by being scrupulous about living within their means. It was one way to ensure that they told the truth about their economic lives. What about us? Are we unconsciously living above our means as a YM, in part, because we have not been telling ourselves the whole truth about our economic lives together? Are we unwittingly “living high” because we don’t see what it really costs for us to do business? Again, I wonder.

And that gets me to that second question, the one about consequences. If Yearly Meeting had to pay its full way, or at least reflect the true costs of doing business in its budget, would we act differently? If we knew the true costs, would we live differently. Would we make different choices?

If we knew, for example, what we are really spending to travel all over this huge Yearly Meeting, would we be more inclined to recognize our own participation in global warming, for example? Would we be more open to simpler ways of being a Yearly Meeting? Perhaps more open to dividing into smaller YMs that are more truly sustainable?

Right now such questions might seem a bit esoteric. But with the looming shift from fossil fuels to yet undetermined alternatives, we might find pondering these questions now could put us in a better place to weather whatever energy storms we end up facing in the future. If experts are correct, how we live in this country is likely to change, possibly very soon, and possibly dramatically. How we do business as a Yearly Meeting is also likely to change. This may be particularly true as we find hidden costs less and less easily passed on and fewer and fewer Friends able to absorb the hidden costs they have willingly subsidized in the past.

Of course, we could try to find a way of tracking the “in kind” subsidies of Friends. Such a system would be nice, but I’m not sure it would provide what we need. Instead we might find ourselves in hours of discussion about how to track costs, and in so doing miss the real point entirely.

It seems to me, the important thing is to be honest with ourselves. That’s really the point, that we begin to tell the truth, the whole truth, about our corporate life, to become more aware of our true costs and to become more fully conscious of what we are reallyspending, right now, not only in money but also in the earth’s resources.

What isthe true cost of Yearly Meeting? What is the truth about our economic life and how does it witness to Peace, Simplicity, Community, Equality, and Earthcare? These are hard questions. I struggle with them daily in my own life. We all do. Can we struggle with them as a Yearly Meeting, too? I believe we can. I believe we must.

As we seek discernment on these issues, I find Friend John Woolman to be a particularly helpful role model. When he found out the true costs of clothing dyed with indigo (dangerous working conditions, slave labor), he stopped wearing it. When he found out the true costs of traveling by stagecoach (animal abuse, mistreatment of the drivers) he walked.

What might Spirit be saying to us? In our place. In our time.

Shelley Cochran, Rochester Meeting &  Earthcare Working Group

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Classism in NYYM

New York Yearly Meeting has seriously considered concerns around race, gender, and sexuality as we strive to live into our testimony of equality. There is another form of discrimination which we tend to overlook. This form of discrimination affects large numbers of our members. It is classism, or economic discrimination. Economic discrimination cuts through the heart of our Yearly Meeting as it does through society at large. It affects who can participate in the life and work of New York Yearly Meeting and is particularly insidious as Friends are often embarrassed to admit need, to say nothing of asking for help.

I’ve been a member of New York Yearly Meeting for some time, but last year was the first year that I’ve had both the time and the money to attend Yearly Meeting sessions at Silver Bay. I have been carrying this concern since then. In that environment the economic segregation is hard to miss. Low-cost rooms are in completely different areas from the pricier accommodations, thereby effectively segregating the financial haves from the have-nots. We tend to get to know and to develop relationships with those we room with or near. Yes, there is a process in place to request financial assistance. Ask your meeting for help. The Yearly Meeting may pay scholarship up to one-third of the cost of the least expensive housing. Assuming financial aid is available from both of these sources at the typical third each, at 2007 rates, a balance of $160 (1/3 room & board plus early registration for one adult) would still be outstanding. Add to this the cost of transportation, and for many, this is not tenable. We decry the small number of NYYM members who are active in their Yearly Meeting; yet we actively exclude many. Must we gather in a location so costly that many members do not even consider attending? Can we plan our summer, fall, and spring sessions where hospitality is available? Do we consider the message of our meeting locations in Light of our testimonies?

As I discuss this concern with other Friends, it becomes clear that many Friends either don’t know that help is available or don’t even begin the process. Many either know that their meetings don’t have resources to help them or are simply embarrassed to ask. Many know that, even if aid is available from both their meetings and through the NYYM Advancement Committee, they will not be able to cover the balance. I’ve spoken to many who have a dearth of vacation time and are not clear to spend the majority of it doing the business of NYYM. I question if there would actually be sufficient funds available for the Yearly Meeting to cover a third each, if all Friends who wanted to be part of the life and work of their Yearly Meeting did request help.

I know that there are no easy answers. No matter what the root, segregation is not easy to look at. Our Faith and Practice states that “We continue Friends’ witness to work for the rights of all women and men to dignity, safety, and political and economic equality.”(p. 48, 2001 edition). I hope that we can labor together to find a way to make the life and work of NYYM accessible financially, and in all ways, to all our members.

Greta Mickey, Bulls Head-Oswego Meeting

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Notices

NEW MEMBERS
George, Jamie, Caleb, Joelle, & Noah Anderson– Rahway-Plainfield
Paul Buckingham—Hamilton
Julie Margaret Finch—Fifteenth Street
Lyle Heidrich—New Paltz
Morgan Heidrich—New Paltz
Melissa Keeley—Easton
Abraham Keeley Klemek—Easton
Clora Kelly—Fifteenth Street
Edgar Norman Kemp, Jr.—Central Finger Lakes
Daniel Maietta—Manhasset
Danielle Maietta—Manhasset
Paula McConnell—Albany
Helge Skibeli—Fifteenth Street
Patricia Tyrol—New Paltz
Ellyse Vitiello—Morningside

MARRIAGES/COVENANT RELATIONSHIPS
Jacqueline Burns and Derek R. Polzer, members of Chatham-Summit, on  June 16, 2007.

TRANSFERS
Anne Katherine Bradshaw, Sigourney Anna Bradshaw, and Graham Conrad Bradshaw, to Chatham-Summit, from Iowa City Friends  (IYM). 
Ly Kesse, to Alfred, from New Paltz.
Wendy Gavel LaCapra, to Fifteenth Street, from Cambridge Friends Meeting (NEYM).
Amala Lane to Morningside from Cincinnati Community Friends (OV & WLYM)
Kristina Perry, to Rochester, from Humboldt Friends Meeting (PYM).
William Wixom, to Chappaqua, from Cleveland (LEYM)
Kathy Wood to Morningside from Louisville Friends (OVYM)

BIRTHS/ADOPTIONS
Abraham Keeley Klemek, on July 3, 2007, to Melissa Keeley and Christopher Briggs Klemek, members of Easton.
Henry William Sass, on May 6, 2007, to Christopher Sass, member of Buffalo, and Jenny Garland Sass.

DEATHS
Clement Alexandre, member of Chappaqua, on April 14, 2007.
Miyoko Bassett, member of Rochester, on May 26, 2007.
Mary Alice Benson, member of Chatham-Summit, on July 7, 2007.
Louis Edgerton, member of Ithaca, on July 26, 2007.
S. Valerie Hoffman, member of Albany, on March 10, 2007.
Melvin W. Jacobie, Sr., member of Adirondack, on May 22, 2007.
Robert Wade Martin, Jr., member of Westbury, on June 26, 2007.
Stanford Mighty, member of Unadilla, on May 21, 2007.
Laura Hart Mosher, member of Syracuse, on May 31, 2007.
Martin Power, member of Rahway-Plainfield on July 1, 2007
Caroline Jackson Rushmore, member of Westbury, on April 12, 2007.
Jacqueline Springer, member of Easton, on March 14, 2007.
Jessie T. Thomas, member of Adirondack, on April 12, 2007

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