DQM 2023-04-30
Dover Quarterly Meeting
Meeting virtually via Zoom.
30 April 2023
Present: We began the meeting at 1 p.m. with the following Friends present.
- Concord – Mark Barker
- Dover – Jeremiah Dickinson, Bill Woodward
- North Sandwich – Susan Wiley
- New England Evangelical Friends – Muchuma Niva
- Weare/Henniker – Marian Baker
- Guest: Kathleen Wooten, Lawrence
07/23 Previous minutes — The minutes of our meeting approved after the correction of the spelling of WhatsApp.
08/23 Treasurer’s report — Donation received from N. Sandwich Meeting. The Quarter currently has $897.94 in unrestricted funds and $812.13 in restricted funds.
09/23 Report from Marian —
During the time Marian is in USA, she has kept in touch helping in East Africa in several ways.
- Tanzania- This week she was helping Tanzanian women get their constitution/bylaws written so that they can be registered as a women’s group with the Tanzanian government and be able to open a bank account that only they can use. If they open an account under the Yearly Meeting where men are the leaders, (the men are known for misuse of funds), they can’t qualify for grants that can help them deal with issues of women’s circumcision and early marriage, as most grantors will only give assistance to groups led entirely by women.
- Famine relief- Marian also helped Mattapoisett Meeting last fall and Lawrence Meeting this spring to get money directly to the people in Turkana and Samburu who were having famine due to three years of no rain. The male leaders in Kenya were willing to send a lorry of food to Turkana for $5000. Regularly Zelikah Galavu, former clerk of USFW Kenya takes food to them regularly for $100. Marian sent half the money donated to Zelikah who took two women, the present Clerk of USFWK and one other woman from Vihiga. In addition to the large gunias (sacks) of maize (corn) and beans, the money was sent for, the women gathered some milk and some salt, and some greengrams, (mung beans), and delivered it first to Lodwar, then were guided to another village that was in worse shape where they delivered maize and beans, but also gave milk to the children. The children sang lustily afterwards.
Marian sent the other half to Samburu, as there were bandits stealing cattle making some areas unsafe. The Friends in the unsafe area migrated south to the other group of Friends. Pastor Pamela Ngoya from Nakuru who goes regularly to Samburu to help the women with their sewing projects, took the bags of maize along with two sewing machines that had been donated by several New England women. They immediately sewed up simple bags of cloth and distributed the food to all the women present- feeding the whole village for a week or more. - Marian has organized along with Angela Hopkins, the Northeast Region of USFW Spring
Gathering to be held in Buffalo, NY on 6-7 May. They will visit the two meetings in Buffalo, one unprogrammed meeting, and one evangelical programmed Congolese Quaker Church.
Marian will be speaking about two important Quaker women ministers, Sybil Jones of Maine who was the first to visit Africa in the 1800s, and Eileen Malova, a Kenyan who travelled in ministry in North America in the 1900s. The gathering is bilingual (Swahili- English) to welcome the African diaspora of Friends who live among us in Northeast USA and Quebec. - Marian also has been helping prepare New England Friends who will be travelling to Kenya for the USFWI and FUM Triennials in Kabarak in July. She has collected donations to enable the women who minister actively at ground level from Tanzania, Uganda, Turkana, and Samburu to attend the conference (not just the wealthy Kenyans).
10/23 Should we meet in person, via Zoom or hybrid? —
Weare, North Sandwich, Gonic and W. Epping all are small meetings with no capability of hybrid meetings. It was decided to have one in-person meeting in the summer hosted by one of these meetings, and have our fall and winter meetings held at Concord or Dover which have internet capacity. It was decided to ask N. Sandwich to host the summer meeting this year starting with worship at 10 a.m. and business meeting at noon on 30th of July. Concord will be asked to host the 29th October meeting, which is planned as hybrid.
11/23 Reports from monthly meetings —
Concord – A few members have been attending other meetings, partially due to controversy over the COVID vaccination policies. Mark continues to maintain webpages of both newsletter and minutes. Linda Seger [https://lindaseger.com/joining-the-quakers/] and her husband visited our meeting during her travels. Linda is currently writing a book on Quakers, Seeking the Light : a Quaker Journey for Quakers and Non-Quakers.
Dover – They have had a regular stream of new attenders.
A memorial service for Charlotte Fardelmann was held at Riverwoods in Exeter on April 8th. Dover Meeting will hold a memorial service for her at the Meetinghouse on 16th of September. They will be writing a memorial minute for Charlotte.
Their Sanctuary project finally has a contractor interested in doing the work.
On second Sundays before worship, they plan in June to start an adult discussion group based on Pendle Hill pamphlets, starting with Bill Taber’s ‘Four Doors to Meeting for Worship.’ [See also https://www.concordfriendsmeeting.org/Forms%2526Booklets#StagesOfMeetingForWorship]
Bill shared about a group, Create a Peaceful World, that meets on the 3rd Wednesday of each month at the meetinghouse. One meeting was on electricity cost and alternate suppliers, another on tips for thriving vegetable gardens.
On 18th-22nd June, the Golden Rule, the boat used to oppose nuclear testing in the Pacific (and the inspiration for the Phoenix that sailed to Vietnam with medical supplies), will be sailing into Portsmouth. Sandra Yarne is organizing it.
George Lakey (long-time peace activist from Philadelphia) will be visiting in Dover- while enroute to Maine Gathering. He recently wrote Dancing with History.
Exeter/Riverwoods – Has a meeting for worship that meets on an irregular basis.
We had discussion about offering midweek worship for those who can’t Zoom or come on Sundays, and to hold periodic worship meetings at nearby retirement facilities where there are Friends in residence.
Gonic – None
New England Evangelical Friends, Nashua – Niva Muchuma joined us late, due to being unwell. He announced the second workshop on Quaker Faith and Practice that will be on May 13th of the African diaspora (held by Zoom) .
North Sandwich – Getting smaller. They have only 13 members, after two died. Regularly have only- 4-6 attending meeting for worship. Susan attended the Life Cycle of Meetings series.
They don’t have financial problems, but seriously need outreach. They keep the meeting open and have distributed keys to those who can’t come on Sundays. They have no children. They have issues with the insurance company that wants them to put hand rails on their balcony that they haven’t used in years.
Weare/Henniker – Marian read a Letter to editor they wrote about gun violence in schools, that prompted two attenders to visit.
West Epping – no report received.
We adjourned purposing to meet next in-person at N. Sandwich Meeting the 30th of July.
| Respectfully Submitted by, | Accepted as the Approved Record, | |
| /s/ Marian Baker, Recording Clerk | /s/ Jeremiah Dickinson, Presiding Clerk |
Dover Quarterly Meeting of Friends
New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, Religious Society of Friends
℅ LeeAnn M Stevens, Treasurer, 400 Webster St, Manchester, NH 03104
| Holdings at Holy Rosary Credit Union (Rochester, NH), Beginning Balances as of 2023-04-30 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Checking Account | $654.40 | Allocation | ||
| Savings Account | $1,005.55 | Unrestricted Funds | $847.94 | |
| Certificate of Deposit | $0.00 | Restricted Funds | $812.01 | |
| TOTAL | $1,659.95 | TOTAL | $1,659.95 | |
| Holdings at Holy Rosary Credit Union (Rochester, NH), Ending Balances as of 2023-04-30 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Checking Account | $704.40 | Allocation | ||
| Savings Account | $1,005.67 | Unrestricted Funds | $897.94 | |
| Certificate of Deposit | $0.00 | Restricted Funds | $812.13 | |
| TOTAL | $1,710.07 | TOTAL | $1,710.07 | |
| Unrestricted Funds | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-01-30 | Beginning Balance | $847.94 | |
| 2023-03-30 | Donation: NSFM (received with gratitude) | $50.00 | |
| 2023-04-30 | Ending Balance | $897.94 | |
| Restricted Funds** | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-01-30 | Beginning Balance | $812.01 | |
| 2023-01-31 | Deposit dividend | $0.04 | |
| 2023-02-28 | Deposit dividend | $0.04 | |
| 2023-03-31 | Deposit dividend | $0.04 | |
| 2023-04-30 | Ending Balance | $812.13 | |
Respectfully submitted,
/s/ LeeAnn M Stevens
Treasurer, submitted 2023-04-30
**Restricted Funds are the “Mary G. Morrell and Horatio S. Morrell Trust Funds. Such funds are dedicated to help ‘poor...ministers… in the service of the Lord.’”
