Spark, May 2015

Summer Sessions

Click the following link to go to the Summer Sessions 2015 section of the website for registration and information about Sessions.

Download a pdf file of Spark

Contents

Articles

• Albany Meeting Covenant Donation
• Ministry Beyond the Meetinghouse Door, by Don Badgley
• "320 Years, One Faith": What does faith ask of me now?, by John Jeremiah Edminster
• Thoughts on Obtaining a Sense of the Meeting, by Jeffrey Aaron
• Diluting Quakerism with Unlimited Viewpoints, by Tim Connolly
• Note that you can comment on these articles in the Comment box at the end of the article.

Around Our Yearly Meeting—Yearly Meeting news

Notices

About this issue: We have published in this issue several articles that have been submitted over the past several months that have no direct relation to one of our issue themes, but that we though would serve as valuable lead-ins to this year's Summer Sessions. We still have several articles that were submitted on the March issue's theme, Friends and Other Faiths, and we will publish these in the September issue.

 

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Around Our Yearly Meeting

Meeting News

Discussion on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict at Genesee Valley Meeting.

May 31: Deb and Ted First of Fredonia Meeting will facilitate. Program runs from 12:30 to about 2:30 following worship (10-11 am) and Dish-to-pass lunch (11:15 am – 12:15 pm). All welcome for any portion. Location: Growing Places Creative Learning Center, 14 Battle St., Dansville, NY.

Shrewsbury Meeting celebrates two big anniversaries

This year, the Meeting has been worshipping together for 350 years and in their current meetinghouse for 200 years.  

Flushing Meetinghouse the pick-up site for the Flushing CSA

Flushing CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) is a volunteer co-operative group of local Flushing (Queens) residents working with an organic farm and JustFood to bring fresh, locally-grown, organic produce to the Flushing community.

NYYM Friends speak to NAACP chapter on Quakers and slavery

April 9, May 14, and June 13: At the invitation of the Edison, New Jersey chapter of the NAACP, Jeffrey Aaron (New Brunswick Meeting) and Jeffrey L. Hitchcock (Rahway & Plainfield Meeting) have done and will do several presentations on the history of Friends and slavery as part of the chapter’s 2015 Juneteenth Celebration, referring to June 19, 1865, the day that the last slaves were informed of their freedom, two and a half years after it happened; this took place in Texas. On April 9, Jeffrey Aaron discussed the history of Friends and the abolition movement and how Quaker values informed Quaker involvement. Jeffrey Hitchcock spoke on May 14 on the current work of Quakers to confront and contend with racism, both within the Society of Friends and in society at large. Both Friends will appear together on June 13.

Addressing racism-— resources for meetings

We now have on our website (www.nyym.org/?q=Resources-RacialEquality) materials developed by Philadelphia Yearly Meeting for use by meetings that want to consider what they may do to address racism, specifically, and “isms” in general.

Notices

New Members

Alexander Douglas Smith Brancato – Jericho

Andrew Smith Brancato – Jericho

William Lyford Brancato – Jericho

Rosario DiSalvo – Poughkeepsie

Andrea Herrin – Saratoga

Jennifer Ilenberg – Albany

Craig Kukuk – Poplar Ridge

Felicia Raphael – Catskill

Tom Ruscitti – Ithaca

Paul Stuart – Saratoga

Lucy Swift – Cornwall

Transfers

John Lewis, to Ithaca from Abington Monthly Meeting (Balt YM)

Annalisa Raymer, to Ithaca from Abington Monthly Meeting (Balt YM)

Deaths

James W. Boice, member of Bulls Head-Oswego, on April 2, 2015

John Bunting, member of Butternuts, on November 10, 2014

Charles E. Carpenter, Jr., member of Poughkeepsie, on April 11, 2015

Edmund Cranch, member of Ithaca, on February 4, 2015

Virginia Klune Light, member of Ithaca, on November 6, 2014

Walter Perry, member of Shrewsbury, on March 19, 2015

John Siceloff, member of Morningside, on March 6, 2015