DQM 2006-10-29

DOVER QUARTERLY MEETING of FRIENDS

Attending at Gonic, NH

29th Sixth Month 2006

Presiding Clerk: Brian Drayton ?

Recording Clerk: Sara Hubner ?

Minutes from Dover Quarterly Meeting

Dover Quarterly Meeting

10/29/06

Fourteen Friends gathered at Gonic meeting, including one from Concord, one from Weare, one from North Sandwich, 6 from Gonic, and the rest from Dover.

During opening worship, the clerk read the first Advice.

Q2-01:  Climate Change Film:  Muriel Farrar urged Friends to see "An Inconvenient Truth," the important film on global climate change, and use it to stimulate wide conversation and action on this important issue. In the discussion that followed this announcement, the clerk was asked to obtain a copy of the DVD for the Quarterly Meeting, to be circulated amongst the meetings as interest dictates. If a complimentary copy is not available, the clerk is authorized to expend QM funds for this purchase.

Q2-02:  FWCC-Americas:  Heather Moir announced two upcoming events of the Friends World Committee for Consultation, Section of the Americas, [a] The annual meeting of the Section, which is open to all Friends, will be held at Providence, 3/15-3/18 2007. [b] The New England Yearly Meeting FWCC committee will be hosting next year's Northeast Regional Meeting, (including Friends from the US northeast states, and the eastern provinces of Canada). This meeting, also open to all, will be held at Madison, CT from 10/19/07 to 10/21/07

Q2-03:  Treasurer’s Report:  Graham Chynoweth sent the Treasurer's report for the period 1/1/06 to 9/30/06. As of 9/20, the current balance of unrestricted funds was $1,326.85.  Friends received this report, with thanks.  We note that the restricted Morrill funds are being held at $1,000, with unexpended interest being transferred to the unrestricted funds of the QM, as directed by the QM some years ago.  Friends considered whether they might wish to augment the Morrill funds, to support intervisitation within the QM, interpreting the aim of the fund broadly.  As a first step, the clerk is asked to direct the treasurer to allow the interest generated by the Funds to accumulate.  It is possible that we will solicit donations to increase these funds in the future.

Q2-04:  Next Quarterly Meeting:  Because the next Fifth First Day is on 12/31, we agreed not to meet, but to meet at our next regular time 4/30/07.  If they are willing, we will meet at Dover meeting.

Q2-05:  Nominating Committee:  Shirley Leslie, Muriel Farrar, and Caroline Thomas are appointed as a Nominating Committee, to bring nominations for Clerk, Recording Clerk, and Treasurer to our next meeting, in 4th mo. 2007.

The session concluded with a program exploring prayer — our own practice, our meetings' practice, how we might talk usefully about prayer in our meetings, and ways we can support and strengthen prayer among us, however it is named.  Friends shared openly and tenderly, and it seemed a profitable time.  The clerk will circulate the documents distributed, for use within the meetings.

No further business appearing, we concluded in worship, purposing to meet (God willing) at Dover meeting house, 4/30/07.

From Quarterly Meeting:

Considering prayer together

Prayer-01:  We have expressed an interest in considering prayer together. There are many ways of approaching this topic, and all these approaches have been taken over centuries. Therefore, there is nothing new to say — except in answering the question, How does this matter to me, and to my community, in this hour, this time of life, this age of the world?

Prayer-02:  Let us stipulate from the outset that, while some of us are more comfortable with prayer than others, and some have lives more saturated by prayer than others, yet standing as we do on the shores of mystery, and always facing a moment we have never inhabited before, we are all beginners. Experience helps, very much so; but the life we seek to encourage in ourselves and others is very tender and vulnerable, and can be found in unexpected times and places. So we need to learn from each other's stories.

Prayer-03:  It is important to take seriously, from the beginning, that prayer is not primarily a thing to talk about, but to do. Therefore, in our time together, we should actually do some praying. We can structure some of this, but each of us should be on the lookout for the moment when prayer seizes us, provides us an opportunity — perhaps private, perhaps shared.

Prayer-04:  One other postulate: the quality, or shall we say, health, of my prayer life is linked to that of my community. It is not that if I pray well, my community will necessarily do so, or vice versa. Yet the more of us in a community that have a healthy prayer life, the more resources the community has as it faces change, uncertainty, opportunity, or conflict. Moreover, a community in which prayer is active and open can do more for the seeking and praying individual than a community in which the inward life is covered or weak.

Prayer-05:  Prayer and its cultivation require us to be honest: about what we desire, what we can do, what we actually do or have done, what we can't do or think. The only requirement is a positive response to the great, simple invitation that Christ has issued: Follow me. Come and see. Walk in the Light, which is perilous, unpredictable, and streams with utter reliability from a source of love and truth. To love God with all our faculties is our only commandment, which is inseparable from loving others. Find out what this might mean.

Prayer-06:  Try these on, and see how you respond — and think it possible your answer needs further inquiry:

Prayer for me is:

  • comfort
  • rest
  • heightened attention
  • atest
  • often or always interrupted
  • inward research
  • a way to see others
  • a habit
  • impossible
  • a way to remember joy
  • unfamiliar
  • uninteresting
  • a goal hard to come at easy

Prayer-07:  Prayer and the community, part 1. We often do not know if people in our meeting (or even our family) have any kind of prayer life, or what kind it is. It is hard to talk about; and then sometimes it is too easily discussed. It takes care and tenderness to speak from experience, with tenderness, and without posturing high or low. But it requires being, for the moment, available to simplicity.

Prayer-08:  Prayer and the community, part 2. Prayer is hard to talk about in community, we may feel reluctant, because the conversation may reveal surprising differences or doubts present within or among us. Then we need to remember that prayer works best in honesty and charity: speaking reverently and matter-of-factly about doubt, anger, confusion, or dryness brings these or any other issue in to the right atmosphere for response: holding it in the Light.

Prayer-09:  Prayer and the community, part 3. How shall we get to the place where we can actually know ourselves to pray in within our community — secretely, or small groups together, or during worship, vocally and silently? We need patience, freedom from fear, mercy, kindness, and the spirit of forgiveness and forgivenness: so we always are in need of some transforming.

Prayer-10:  Pray as you can, how you can. We are tool-using creatures, so we often need (or benefit from) external means to support inward experience. Recognizing these two truths, one sees that prayer can be scaffolded by many means, including words, but not confined to them. Work, music, location, visual cues, physical activity, sitting posture, words — all of these can help us move towards, or maintain, the inward work. Wordless contemplation, the sheer practice of the Presence, may not be the highest path, though for some it is the sweetest.

Finally, though, these things serve just to help us come to the place from which prayer arises: every act of prayer is an act of seeking. Prayer comes to us, comes to meet us as we seek it, because it arises from God's seeking us as we seek God, the double search. Prayer is a gift, not an accomplishment.

A 1-hour activity on prayer

  1. Settle into silence.  Move towards prayer, and call to mind how you pray and don't.  What helps do you use?  What hinders prayer for you?
  2. Briefly describe this to your companion(s), and after a space, listen carefully to their description(s).  Pause.  When you tell about your experience, how does it make you feel? When you hear another's, how does it make you feel?  What questions arise now?
  3. Out of the silence, tell your companion(s) what evidence you have about the prayer life in your meeting (in worship, at meeting activities, in homes, or in private).  Do people talk about it, refer to it, read about it, call each other to it, do it visibly?
  4. Is there anyone in your meeting concerned to encourage prayer?  How do they do it?
  5. What could be helped in your meeting by a strengthened prayer life?
  6. During the closing silence, ask: what might be a next step for myself?  What might I try to encourage in my meeting?  How might other meetings, or other Friends, help me or us move forward?  Keep it simple, and keep it sweet.  If you feel free to, put it into words, and make yourself accountable for the next little step.

A few things to read and discuss.

  • Heard, Gerald. Ten questions on prayer. PHP 58
  • Hole, Helen. Prayer, the cornerstone PHP 123
  • Penington, Isaac. Letters.
  • Snell, Beatrice S. A joint and visible fellowship. PHP 140
  • Steere, Douglas: Dimensions of prayer.

[PHP refers to Pendle Hill Pamphlets. These can be ordered from Pendle Hill; 338 Plush Mill Road, Wallingford, PA 19086-6099 or online at http://www.pendlehill.org/bookstore/catalog/] PHP 140 could be obtained online (free) at http://phd/php140Jr.html

Announcements:

From Brian Drayton (Clerk of Dover Quarter):

Listening to the news from the election, it occurred to me that between now and the beginning of the new session of Congress might be a time to have a meeting on behalf of the Society of Friends in NH with each one, raising concerns relating to selected issues: peace, justice, and environmental issues.  I'd nominate: restructuring of Fed budget away from war, globalization and related justice issues, global warming, international arms treaties and trading, peace tax fund...but my real reason for writing is, Maybe someone on this list has experience organizing such an event, and could advise on feasibility, etc.  Then we could plan on a rep or two from each meeting (inviting Hanover, Keene, and Monadnock, too, of course).

I would want part of the meeting to include our congratulations and assurance of prayer on behalf of right government, not only presentation of demands and issues!

Is this an idea that could work?

From David Keller (pastor of the church which hosts the homeless shelter): http://webmail.medscape.com/src/download.php?absolutedl=true&passed id=21&passedent id=2&mailbox=INBOX&showHeaders=l

COLD WEATHER HOMELESS SHELTER TRAINING: Tuesday, November 28, 6:30 - 9:30, First Congregational Church, Washington and North Main Streets, Concord.  This all-volunteer run program provides shelter for people who are homeless in the Concord area.  Managers oversee the program each night, and volunteers provide hospitality and presence.  Volunteers serve on one of two shifts, 6-10 PM, and 10 PM - 8 AM.  Most volunteers serve once or twice each month from mid-December through March. People over 18 are wecome to volunteer.  A training is scheduled for November 28, 6:30 - 9:30.  If you would like to help, or have questions about the program e-mail outreach [at] concordsfirstchurch [dot] org. or call Sarah Greene, volunteer coordinator, at 225-5491.

From Martha Yager (AFSC advocate for the homeless):

Today’s relatively warm weather will soon give way to bone aching cold, putting those who live outdoors at risk of freezing.  Concord’s Cold Weather Shelter is in the process of putting in the sprinkler system and fire doors that are required for us to open and the first volunteer training has taken place.  I hope you will consider volunteering a couple of evenings or overnights a month and/or helping us fund the $40,000 of safety improvements.  To volunteer, please attend the training (see above).  To assist with funding, please make a check to Concord Interfaith Council, with Cold Weather Shelter in the memo and send it to Greater Concord Interfaith Council, PO Box 362, Concord, NH 03302-0362.

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