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Contents
Christopher Sammond’s Travel CalendarApril 1– May 31, 2008
Memorial for Dean FreidayDean Freiday, a long-time member of Manasquan Monthly Meeting, died March 4, 2008, at 92. His Barclay’s Apology in Modern English, first published in 1957, continues to be a standard work on Quaker theology. He published more than a dozen articles in Quaker journals and served a term as editor of Quaker Religious Thought. A memorial service will be held on April 12, 2008, at 11:00 A.M. at Manasquan Meeting, 2257 Meetinghouse Road, Manasquan, N.J. 08736. Witness to HistoryThe exhibit “Witness to History,” a series of posters on the aftermath of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, is available for monthly or regional meetings to display in their communities. It is a profound statement against nuclear weapons. The first showing was held in Ossining, N.Y., sponsored jointly by Scarsdale Meeting and Pax Christi Maryknoll. A second is planned for April 13 and 14 at Fordham University in the Bronx; and a third is planned for April 20 to May 31 in Rutland, Vt. After that, it is available, and we hope that it will be shown in several locations in upstate New York. Thumbnails of the posters can be seen at www.pcf.city.hiroshima.jp/images_e/poster/poster_e.html. For more information, please e-mail to Mary Eagleson, mleagleson [at] aol.com. Shrewsbury/Plainfield Half-Yearly MeetingShrewsbury & Plainfield Half-Yearly Meeting will be held at the New Brunswick Friends meetinghouse, 109 Nichol Ave., New Brunswick, N.J., Saturday, April 19, 2008, from 9:30 A.M. to 4 P.M. Lunch will be at 12:30 P.M., and Rev. Lisanne Finston, executive director of Elijah’s Promise, will speak at 1:30 about the work done by her organization, which provides meals, social services, and health screening for people in central N.J. All Friends and attenders are welcome. Parking across Nichol Ave. in a Rutgers lot behind the Little Theater. For more information call Jennie Fischer at 732-846-6610. Me, My Partner, and the DivineMe, My Partner, and the Divine: Our Spiritual Path and Our Relationship As a Couple is a Couple Enrichment Retreat to be held at Rochester Friends Meeting April 18 and 19, 2008. Sharing your spiritual life is a way to grow as a couple and deepen your intimacy. But sometimes, it may seem as if there is a lot of mystery and uncertainty surrounding spirituality. It can be hard to talk about it, and even hard to hear about your partner’s spiritual journey. What do you know about your spiritual journey? About your partner’s journey? This weekend will give couples time to explore issues around their spiritual lives, such as:
Couples will use the couple enrichment model to listen deeply to each other and to the Divine Presence in their relationship. This retreat is for couples in a healthy, committed relationship, regardless of sexual orientation or marital status. Limited to ten couples. Cost: $40 per couple - includes a simple lunch Mary Kay Glazer and Mark Moss live in Ticonderoga, N.Y. They are members of Rochester Monthly Meeting and attend Middlebury, Vt., Monthly Meeting and the Ticonderoga Worship Group. Rochester Monthly Meeting and New York Yearly Meeting support their ministry as released Friends. Light ImpressionsAmawalk Monthly Meeting invites you to a Simple Lunch* and Light Impressions: A Photo Exhibit, Sunday, April 20, 2008. Proceeds from this Simple Lunch will benefit The Office of Genetic Counseling and Disabled Children (OGCDC) in Vietnam Lunch begins at Noon. The Exhibit is open until 5 P.M. Join your neighbors for a simple meal of soup, bread, fruit, and beverage to help support children in Vietnam who suffer from congenital diseases and disabilities and who are helped by the only nonprofit that specializes in such work in Vietnam. After lunch, travel with Amawalk’s own photographer, Nick Burlakoff, as he shares his sojourns and visions of the worlds of sacred spaces, work, nature, seasons, flowers, critters, and humor & whimsy. Exhibit photos will be available for purchase and will help defray the cost of a pilgrimage to Vietnam. A donation of $6.00 per person is requested. * Simple Meals is a program developed by Right Sharing of World Resources (www.rswr.org) to promote mindfulness of our abundance, and as a reminder to share our bounty with those who hunger. Previous beneficiaries of Amawalk’s Simple Meals include Alternatives to Violence Project, Heifer International, and Right Sharing of World Resources. Singing à la NightingalesFriends will gather for a celebration of song April 25–27, 2008, at Mohawk Valley Meeting and the home of a Friend. Mary Jacobs and Christopher Sammond have enjoyed singing with the Nightingales, a Northern Yearly Meeting a cappella singing group, and want to share the experience with Friends here. Getting together and singing as the Nightingales do it is about singing from the heart. It is not about being a great singer. It is about being in a community singing with love. If you were told by your kindergarten teacher to “just mouth the words,” because “you can’t sing,” you can sing. If you can talk, you can sing. We sing from Rise Up Singing and Worship in Song, but we often bring songs or rounds to teach each other. Every person present, even the very youngest, gets to name a song they want sung, and if the person wants, they set the pitch for it too. There are also times when we break into song without books and without structure, our hearts leading us from one song to another, one genre to another, sacred, silly, schmaltzy, rounds, hymns, show tunes—we wander into some amazing bayous of song. These weekends are also about fellowship and food. We all bring food to share, and have pot-luck meals that we take turns organizing and cleaning up after. And we tell about our lives. We do that in words, and in the songs we initiate, for there is little more revealing than the song in your heart. Sometimes we sing our way into the truth of who we are, and receive that from the singing. Those that can camp, do so, or sleep in sleeping bags on the floor. Those that need a bed, due to age or physical need, get the few that are available. We charge a small fee for breakfast staples, but otherwise we do everything ourselves, so the cost is negligible. If this sounds like fun to you, please come, and bring those you love with you. Shuttle service from Utica Amtrak station is a possibility. Children are most welcome, though those not wanting to participate in the singing are the responsibility of their parents. Suggested fee: $10 For more information contact Christopher Sammond, 845-876-0802, c1sammond [at] aol.com, or Mary Jacobs, 585-547-3313, mjacobs61 [at] mac.com. Registration: Contact NYYM office at 212-673-5750, office [at] nym.org. We need to know how many to plan for and what food you plan to share. RAP—Responsible Adult PresenceA Workshop on Adult Presences at Quaker Youth Gatherings will be held at Farmington-Scipio Spring Gathering, Friday May 16, 2008, 9:30 A.M.–4:00 P.M. at Long Point Camp, Penn Yan, N.Y. For registration, e-mail office [at] nyym.org and a registration form will be sent to you. The workshop is for:
The goals of this workshop are
We will play, talk, listen, and reflect. We will ask how an “adult presence” in a youth gathering can help the participants to experience Friends’ testimonies. While the content will be adapted to the actual participants, you can anticipate topics to include: special considerations for men, setting boundaries for adults and youth, selecting (or saying “no” to) adult volunteers, creating a process and place to help ensure the physical and emotional safety of all, and what to do when an adult presence is not working out. If you are attending this workshop, please consider staying for the Farmington-Scipio Spring Gathering. You can register for the Gathering at www.nyym.org/rochester/futureevents.htm. For those needing overnight accommodations Thursday night in order to attend Friday morning, John Cooley has volunteered the use of his house. Mike Clark is a codirector of the Powell House Youth Program and will facilitate this retreat. Christopher Sammond serves NYYM as its general secretary and will help with logistics. A Quaker Book of NatureGale Swiontkowski, a new member of Amawalk Monthly Meeting, is working on a pamphlet, tentatively titled A Quaker Book of Nature. This pamphlet explores the medieval concept of the Book of Nature, in which Nature is compared to a book, through which we might come closer to God. Gale argues that the Quaker interests in ongoing revelation and deep listening are an extension of that concept—a concept that Gale argues would be of great value for modern people to revisit. Gale is a professor of English at Fordham University but is resigning this summer to pursue her own writings on the relations between literature and spirituality. SatyagrahaSatyagraha: Gandhi’s “Truth Force” in the Age of Climate Change is a free public forum to be presented at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine April 13, 2008, at 7:00 P.M. The cathedral is at 112th Street and Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan. The Cathedral event features Rajmohan Gandhi, Gandhi’s biographer and grandson; Paul Hawken, author of Blessed Unrest; performances by Philip Glass; Dr. A. T. Ariyaratne, founder of Sri Lanka’s Sarvodaya movement; Sulak Sivaraksa, founder of the Thailand Spirit in Education Movement; and other distinguished participants. Gandhi’s example inspired the 20th century’s most effective social-change movements. Can it now inspire us to confront and transform climate change? This event is sponsored by the Garrison institute. For further information visit www.garrisoninstitute.org and click on the photo of Gandhi. Eco-spirituality & Action:
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