CMM 2018-07-08 Possible Items for Agenda

Here are some possible agenda items for Seventh Month’s Meeting for Worship with attention to Business, which will be on the 8^th of Seventh Month.  Some of the items from Sixth Month may have been carried forward.  Some of the proposed items may need further seasoning.  They are in no particular order at the moment.  [See also http://quakerspeak.com/quaker-decision-making-consensus/ [1]]

During worship, please hold in your heart the following from Eden Grace’s paper “An Introduction to Quaker Business Practice” [2].

Quakers profess a theocratic understanding of authority. “The primary authority is that of God, as the God whose will is sought, as Christ who presides, and as the Holy Spirit who inspires and empowers. Thus the task of the meeting is to listen in worship, putting itself under that authority, to discern the right way forward on any piece of business.” ^* All human leadership is subordinated to the authority of Christ, the true shepherd of any gathering of Christians. All participants in the Meeting are equally capable of being used by the Holy Spirit, and those who moderate the Meeting are seen as servants of the gathering discernment process.

* Scott, Janet “Business Meetings”, manuscript submitted for inclusion in the forthcoming Dictionary of the Religious Society of Friends, 1999.

• Minutes of Sixth Month’s Meeting for Worship with attention to Business [3].
• Budget Committee report
  • “How does our Meeting engage its members in the support of the Meeting’s work, its ministry, and the upkeep of its property?” ¹
• Property Committee report
  • “Does our Meeting serve social and economic justice in its uses of property and money?” ¹
• Solar Committee report
  • “We do not own the world, and its riches are not ours to dispose of at will.  Show a loving consideration for all creatures, and seek to maintain the beauty and variety of the world.  Work to ensure that our increasing power over nature is used responsibly, with reverence for life.  Rejoice in the splendour of God’s continuing creation.” ²
• Peace, Social, and Earthcare Concerns Committee (PSECC) report
  • AFSC’s Sanctuary Everywhere [4]
  • FCNL’s #LoveThyNeighbor (No Exceptions) [5]
  • AFSC-NH’s, GSOP’s, and NH Council of Churches’ Immigrant Solidarity Network [6]
• Youth Religious Education Committee report
  • Children and young people need love and stability.  Are we doing all we can to uphold and sustain parents and others who carry the responsibility for providing this care? ³
• Outreach Committee report
  • “Are you patterns, examples; do your lives preach among all sorts of people, and to them?  Do you walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in every one?” - NEYM 1985 Faith and Practice, Queries 5.4 and 5.5 [7].
• Ministry & Counsel Committee report
  • Query 2. “b) Are we aware of the roles we fill as heirs of the meetings of ministers and elders?  What do we do to support each other in the use of our gifts for God’s work?  Do we actively seek to identify and nurture these gifts in each other?”  NEYM Minute of Exercise, 2015-09-15 [8]

Announcements & Events:

NEYM Annual Sessions Registration Information and Instructions [9]  August 4–9, 2018 at Castleton University, Castleton, Vermont.

Volunteers to be ready to support Manchester Unitarian Universalist Church as a Level 1 physical sanctuary in the New Hampshire Immigrant Solidarity Network.  There's a sign-up sheet on the easternmost bulletin board.  Here's a list of the support roles needed.

• Day Citizen Companions
• Provide Food
• Provide Transportation
• Offer Entertainment (games or movies)
• Provide Emotional Support
• Provide Language Translation
• Provide Legal Support
• Provide Medical Support
• Raise Funds
• Provide a Gift Card
• Organize other Volunteers
• Laundry
• Other support you could offer

Jun 11 (Mon)   2:00 p.m.  Poor People’s Campaign, Week 5: Everybody's Got the Right to Live:  Education, Living Wage Jobs, Income, Housing.  Rally at the State House in Concord, NH.  Civil Disobedience (CD) direct actions begin at 3 p.m.  Everyone participating in CD must be trained.  If there’s a week you’d like to do CD, you must arrive at 12 p.m. for specific orientation on the day’s CD.  Connect at http://PoorPeoplesCampaign.org [10]; http://Twitter.com/NewHampshirePPC [11]; http://Facebook.com/NewHampshirePPC [12]; Text MORAL to 90975.

Jun 17 (Sun)  10:00 a.m.  Worship, followed by Spring Party at the home of Jonah, Rue, Rowan, and Elanor.  Opening:  ; Closing: Heidi, Kathy M.

Jun 18 (Mon)   2:00 p.m.  Poor People’s Campaign, Week 6: A New and Unsettling Force:  Confronting the Distorted Moral Narrative.  Rally at the State House in Concord, NH.  Civil Disobedience (CD) direct actions begin at 3 p.m.  Everyone participating in CD must be trained.  If there’s a week you’d like to do CD, you must arrive at 12 p.m. for specific orientation on the day’s CD.  Connect at http://PoorPeoplesCampaign.org [10]; http://Twitter.com/NewHampshirePPC [11]; http://Facebook.com/NewHampshirePPC [12]; Text MORAL to 90975.

Jun 19 (Tue)   8:30 – 10:00 a.m.  Interfaith Prayer Vigil for Immigrant Justice [13] [Joshua 6:1-27 [14]] for those reporting to ICE [15] for deportation that day at the Norris Cotton Federal Building, 275 Chestnut Street in Manchester.  [Also, see resources at the website [16] sponsored by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.]

Jun 19 (Tue)   7:30 p.m.  “Climate Justice, What It Requires Of Us All [17]” a talk at Beacon Hill Friends House [18] (in Boston, MA) given by Rev. Mariama White-Hammond [19].  Rev. White-Hammond will cover the the history of the term “climate justice,” what it requires us of all, and concrete suggestions for how we can all shift in a more just direction as we take action about the climate.  The event is free and open to the public, and you can jennifer [dot] higgins [dot] newman [at] gmail [dot] com (e-mail) me if you need childcare.  Here’s the Facebook [20] event and poster [17] for more information.  The event will be live-streamed on the Beacon Hill Friends House Facebook page [21].

Jun 21 (Thu)   6:00 – 7:00 p.m.  Study group using “Friendly Faith & Practice Study Guide” by Joanne & Larry Spears. [22]   Printed booklets for each session are available in the meetinghouse or from MarkBarker [at] ConcordFriendsMeeting [dot] org.  At the end of each session, we will agree the date and time that is most convenient for the next session.  (Usually, meetings will be on the first and third Thursdays of the month.)

Jun 22 (Fri)  12:00 – 5:00 p.m. The Conference of Quaker Historians and Archivists have set up sessions on the afternoon of June 22 which provide a great opportunity to learn more about best practices for both Meeting recordkeeping, a tour of the NEYM Archives at UMass SCUA [23] and preservation of family collections.  With the Conference taking place at the Amherst campus of the University of Massachusetts,  the Archives Committee encourages those who want to get a tour of our records as well as to learn more about best practices for record keeping in your Meeting to try to attend.  To pre-register,  visit http://library.guilford.edu/cqha/home [24] or https://umass.irisregistration.com/Home/Site?code=CQHA [25].

Jun 23 (Sat)   All Day  Poor People’s Campaign, Global Day of Solidarity & Sending Forth:  Call to Action and Mass Rally.  Connect at http://PoorPeoplesCampaign.org [10]; http://Twitter.com/NewHampshirePPC [11]; http://Facebook.com/NewHampshirePPC [12]; Text MORAL to 90975.

Jun 24 (Sun)  10:00 a.m.  Worship, followed by next event.   Opening:  ; Closing: Mark, Gini.

Jun 24 (Sun)    5:30 p.m.  Fourth Sunday program potluck with Eden Grace, who on behalf of Friends United Meeting will be travelling in New England with Adrian Moody [26], new head of the Ramallah Friends School.

Jun 27 (Wed)   8:30 – 10:00 a.m.  Sugrat Mohamed’s check-in at the Norris Cotton Federal Building, 275 Chestnut Street in Manchester. 

Sugrat was detained on February 20^th during a routine check-in appointment at the ICE [15] office in Manchester, NH.  Sugrat arrived to the US as a six year old child, fleeing war-torn Sudan with his mother and siblings. In the more than 20 years he has lived here, his home country has split into two and remains divided in a bitter war.  Following an order of deportation several years ago, ICE detained him twice while they tried, unsuccessfully, to deport him to Sudan.  He has been checking in regularly to his deportation officer for five years, and in that time he has become a father and breadwinner for his family.  To be suddenly detained yet again so that ICE can try again to secure travel documents for him, from a country that does not recognize him as a citizen, is cruel and pointless.

  Sugrat was finally released on the 25^th of May and must check in with ICE on the 27^th of June

Jul   1 (Sun)  10:00 a.m.  Worship.  Closing: Pat, Faith.

Jul   3 (Tue)   8:30 – 10:00 a.m.  (First Tuesday) Interfaith Prayer Vigil for Immigrant Justice [13] [Joshua 6:1-27 [14]] for those reporting to ICE [15] for deportation that day at the Norris Cotton Federal Building, 275 Chestnut Street in Manchester.  This will be followed by the Sanctuary Support Network [27] meeting at Blessed-Sacrament Church, 14 Elm St, Manchester where there will be refreshments.  We have signed the pledge to stand with our immigrant neighbors.  If you have not seen a copy of the revised solidarity statement, it can be found here [28].  [Also, see resources at the website [16] sponsored by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.]

Jul   5 (Thu)   6:00 – 7:00 p.m.  Study group using “Friendly Faith & Practice Study Guide” by Joanne & Larry Spears. [22]   Printed booklets for each session are available in the meetinghouse or from MarkBarker [at] ConcordFriendsMeeting [dot] org (subject: Friendly%20Faith%20%26%20Practice%20Study%20Guide) .  At the end of each session, we will agree the date and time that is most convenient for the next session.  (Usually, meetings will be on the first and third Thursdays of the month.)

Jul   8 (Sun)  10:00 a.m.  Worship, followed by potluck and Meeting for Business.  Closing: JJ, Sara.

Jul 14 (Sat)  11:00 a.m.  Worship.  JJ and Sara’s recommitment.

Jul 14 (Sat)  12:30 – 4:00 p.m.  25^th Anniversary Party for JJ and Sara at Kimball Jenkins Estate, Concord, NH [29].  RSVP needed to jaycmd7699 [at] gmail [dot] com (subject: 25th%20Anniversary%20Party) or sara [dot] rose [dot] ssmith [at] gmail [dot] com (subject: 25th%20Anniversary%20Party) .

Jul 15 (Sun)  10:00 a.m.  Worship.  Closing: Greg, Ruth.

Jul 17 (Tue)   8:30 – 10:00 a.m.  Interfaith Prayer Vigil for Immigrant Justice [13] [Joshua 6:1-27 [14]] for those reporting to ICE [15] for deportation that day at the Norris Cotton Federal Building, 275 Chestnut Street in Manchester.  [Also, see resources at the website [16] sponsored by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.]

Jul 19 (Thu)   6:00 – 7:00 p.m.  Study group using “Friendly Faith & Practice Study Guide” by Joanne & Larry Spears. [22]   Printed booklets for each session are available in the meetinghouse or from MarkBarker [at] ConcordFriendsMeeting [dot] org (subject: Friendly%20Faith%20%26%20Practice%20Study%20Guide) .  At the end of each session, we will agree the date and time that is most convenient for the next session.  (Usually, meetings will be on the first and third Thursdays of the month.)

Jul 22 (Sun)  10:00 a.m.  Worship.  Closing: Pat, Faith.

Jul 29 (Sun)  10:00 a.m.  Worship.  Closing: Rob Y, Jon.

Jul 29 (Sun)  10:00 - 11:00 a.m. Dover Quarterly Meeting is at the Pittsfield Meetinghouse.  Weare/Henniker Quaker Meeting will host again.  Several Friends have also expressed that they would like to be present at Concord Friends Meeting for the dedication of the gift receipt of forest land next to their meetinghouse from the Appalachian Mountain Teen Project (AMTP) which had originally been given the land by Don and Lois Booth.  In 2009, AMTP donated the building lot to Concord Meeting.  The following schedule will allow for both events and means that we will not conduct Quarterly business in July but instead worship and socialize together:

• 10:00 - 11:00 a.m. Worship
• 11:00 - 12:00 a.m. Picnic Lunch
• 12:00 Noon: Potluck at Concord Meetinghouse (For those who wish to go to Concord: the directions for the drive to Concord Meetinghouse [30 minutes] are below.)
• 12:45 p.m. Program of Appreciation to Don and Lois Booth and Appalachian Mountain Teen Project
•   1:00 p.m. Walk to bluff overlooking River and around property (optional since this requires a fair amount of climbing up a trail)
  • Swimming at Town Beach on Merrimack just down the road
  • Greeting Lois Booth

Directions to the South Pittsfield Meetinghouse:  484 Dowboro Road, South Pittsfield, NH.  From Concord, go East on Route 202; at 3.6 miles beyond the Epsom Traffic Circle turn left onto North Road; travel north 3.6 miles (North Road changes to Dowboro Road); the Meetinghouse will be on your right.  [From Faith Sillars who lives opposite the Meetinghouse.  (Faith has also offered use of her bathroom to Friends.): "The Pittsfield Meetinghouse is on Dowboro Road, which is a road that starts at rt 28, as Main St, going through the Pittsfield downtown, then is South Main St, then, after about 3 miles, Dowboro Road though the center of South Pittsfield, then is North Road, at the Epsom line, extending about 3 miles, to Rt 4, becoming 107 S, when it crosses Rt 4."]  Just a reminder — the facilities consist of a two-hole indoor outhouse.  Directions from S. Pittsfield to Concord Meeting:  Left out of Pittsfield Meetinghouse to Rt 202/4 West.  After about 8.6 miles, bear right to get on I-393.  Take Exit 1 to go North on I-93.  At about 6 miles, take Exit 17 and right at fork which merges you onto US 4 West toward Boscawen/Penacook.  At 0.6 miles (first right) turn onto Old Boyce Rd; take left at immediate fork (signs are there) and follow road 0.8 miles to Meetinghouse, which will be on right.  Use this Google Maps link: https://goo.gl/maps/VfdiKDjqpwv [30]

Aug   4-9 (Sat-Thu)  NEYM Annual Sessions [31] at Castleton University, Castleton, Vermont.  Each August, more than 600 Friends come together for worship, fellowship and seeking how God will guide us in meeting for business.  Having first gathered in 1661, New England Yearly Meeting of Friends is the oldest “yearly meeting” in the Quaker world.  While this gathering is large—among the largest Quaker events in North America—there are many opportunities to connect with Friends old and new: vibrant youth programs, adult small groups, variety shows, topical interest sessions and shared meals.  In recent years, Sessions has featured plenary addresses, Bible Half-Hours, a contra-dance, and coffeehouse.

Aug   5 (Sun)  10:00 a.m.  Worship.  Closing: Dave, Penny.

Aug 12 (Sun)  10:00 a.m.  Worship, followed by potluck and Meeting for Business.  Closing: Rich, Kathy U.

Aug 19 (Sun)  10:00 a.m.  Worship.  Closing: Mark, Gini.

Aug 26 (Sun)  10:00 a.m.  Worship.  Closing: Greg, Ruth.

Aug 31 - Sep 3 (Fri-Mon)  Exploring Art as a Practice of Faith Quaker camp for adult artists of all media over Labor Day Weekend at Friends Camp, South China, Maine.  Registration opens June 1^st and closes August 15^th at http://Art-Camp.org [32] or e-mail ArtCampRes [at] gmail [dot] com; follow on @artcampres and #artcamp2018.

Sep (xxx)  Manchester NAACP Annual Meeting:  Debby Irving, author of Waking Up White [33], will be the featured speaker.

First Day School Help:  If you would like to be a helper in the children’s program, and have not yet filled out the Youth Worker Screening Form [34].  Please download and print one out, fill it in, and pass it to Kathy Urie.  You can find it at Youth Worker Screening Form [34].  We need one helper each week.  Look for a sign-up sheet on the left bulletin board this Sunday.  And thank you!  The children thank you too!

In August 2017, we published a statement in response to the tragedy in Charlottesville, Virginia [35].  Please also see “Such a Time as This: A Response to Hate and Violence [36]” as well as the “2017 Epistle of New England Yearly Meeting [37]”, Ruby Sales’ Plenary Message [38] on NEYM’s Youtube channel, and the audio recordings of the 2017 Annual Sessions Bible Half-Hours by Marty Grundy [39] focusing (exegeting [40]) on Romans 12:2 [41].  Draft booklet of Bible Half Hour texts [42].

^1. See http://www.pym.org/faith-and-practice/queries/11-stewardship-of-resources/ [43]

^2. See http://qfp.quaker.org.uk/chapter/1/ [44] № 42

^3. See http://qfp.quaker.org.uk/chapter/1/ [44] № 24