Concord Friends Meeting

A Monthly Meeting in Dover Quarter of New England Yearly Meeting, Religious Society of Friends

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The Meeting Calendar

Please socially distance for all indoor events and mask when not eating or drinking (more info).

NB. Midweek Meeting is not scheduled.  Please be in touch with Rich or Lucy if you are interested in attending.

Cleanup This Sunday – Sunday, May 21

This is our every other month third Sunday meetinghouse cleanup. There is both indoor and outdoor work available. Iron rakes and shovels can be used to repair the right hand side of the parking lot. Don't forget to wear appropriate clothing and have some insect protection. See you there.

Minutes of Meeting for Business, May 7 at 12:30 p.m.

The draft minutes for the May 2023 meeting for worship with attention to business are available at https://www.concordfriendsmeeting.org/2023-05-07_CMM_Minutes or via https://www.concordfriendsmeeting.org/Minutes_of_ConcordMonthlyMeeting.

Yard Sale

What a great success! It was wonderful to experience the collective effort and the results as well. About $2,500 was raised and the outreach to the community was great.

COVID Information from other Meetings

As a follow-up to last week's Meeting for Business and the subject of COVID protocols, here is an interesting read on the practices of 14 Meetings around our Quarter and the Yearly Meeting.  It contains much food for thought.

News of Friends:

Matt Sweeney will be off for graduate studies in Ireland in early June.  May 21^st is likely to be his last Sunday with us.  An Irish proverb: May the hinges of our friendship never grow rusty.

YRE Helpers

We have some opening for Childcare on the 21^st and the 28^th.  If you are on the list of vetted volunteers, here is the link for signups: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tetViYwBHcb-1kwNJgyVbZXS-3mesUP184IR-zkkNZ4/edit

Green Burial Options for Concord Friends Meeting members and attenders

Dave Woolpert is interested in exploring with other CFM members and attenders how to take advantage of a green burial option, either on Meeting property or elsewhere. This topic was discussed several years ago at a Fourth Sunday presentation by someone from another NEYM Meeting.  Now there are green burial sites scattered around the state and elsewhere.  At some point he will bring this to an upcoming Meeting for Business, but anyone having an interest in exploring this with others in the Meeting can contact Dave or either of the Co-Clerks.

The End of our Fiscal Year

If you have spent money on behalf of committees and have not yet been reimbursed, please gather the documentation you are able and submit to Bookkeeper [at] ConcordFriendsMeeting [dot] org (subject: End%20of%20CMM%20Fiscal%20Year%202023) ASAP.  Our fiscal year ends May 31.  Certainly appreciates the many donations that come to us through in-kind expenditures that don't get reimbursed.  We do find it helpful to know what our actual expenses are.

MEETING FOR LISTENING: The Spiritual Life in our Local Meetings at Concord Friends Meetinghouse

A full-day, hybrid event June 24, 2023

Friends are most in the Spirit when they stand at the crossing point of the inward and outward life. And that is the intersection at which we find community. a place where the connections felt in the heart make themselves known in bonds between people, and where the tugging and pullings of those bonds keep opening our hearts.

- (Parker Palmer, A Place Called Community, Pendle Hill Pamphlet #212, 1977)

JOIN US FOR A GATHERING OF FRIENDS IN NEW ENGLAND CARING FOR THE NURTURE OF SPIRITUAL LIFE AND MINISTRY IN OUR LOCAL FAITH COMMUNITIES.

Together, we will:

• Dream together,
• Identify the resources meetings have to offer each other,
• Explore themes in State of Society reports and trends from statistical reports, and
• Discover what’s possible now.

Background:

As you know, our yearly meeting’s primary purpose is to support monthly meetings, to be a vehicle to share resources and experiences among and between us in order to better understand our life in the Spirit and to be able to listen more closely to the Teacher. With that in mind, at yearly meeting annual sessions last year, we decided to hold a “Meeting for Listening.”

Our first “Meeting for Listening” is scheduled for JUNE 24, 2023. It will be a FULL-DAY, HYBRID GATHERING where Friends can gather in different ways: on-site at Concord (NH) Meeting, in local clusters connected via Zoom, as well as individually via Zoom.

We gather to share with each other—to reflect on where Spirit is alive in our local worshiping communities. These insights and reflections will both inform programmatic planning in the year ahead and our annual Funding Priorities.

And while that’s all very serious, don’t be misled. We are looking forward to a day of joyful worship, celebration, and discovery.

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN.  Whether you plan to participate via Zoom or gather with others, you can register for this free-of-charge event at NEYM.org/Meeting-for-Listening.  If you plan to attend on-site in Concord, please register by June 1^st.  This will help us comfortably accommodate everyone.

Are you led to host a local cluster in your area? If, rather than travel to Concord, you are interested in inviting area Friends (for example, your Quarter) to gather at your meeting’s location in a regional cluster to participate in the gathering together connected via a shared device or system, we would love to support you in doing so, as much as we are able. Contact us (mc-clerk [at] neym [dot] org and Nia [at] neym [dot] org) to begin a conversation.

Looking forward in faith, Carl Williams, Ministry and Counsel Clerk and Nia Thomas, Program Director

New Books

This Newsletter

Dear Friends,

If you have information to share via this Newsletter please have your information submitted to ConcordFriendsNewsletter [at] gmail [dot] com by 5:00 PM on Thursdays.  Items should begin with a headline followed by text that can be copied and pasted without editing.  Please remove any formatting if you are able.  Also, please keep postings directly related to the Meeting or activities and groups supported by the Meeting, or personal news to share.

Typically the announcements will go out by Friday.  It is our intention to acknowledge receipt of all submissions.  If you don't receive an acknowledgment we probably have not seen your message, and it would be helpful if you followed up with us. 

The Newsletter Gmail account is owned by Wendy, but it is also used by Greg.  Look for the signature to be clear who the actual sender is.  And finally, it's best to keep your Zoom links in a handy place in case the announcements are not sent in a given week.

Greg Heath / Wendy Lapham, Newsletter Editors

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Visit this page on our web site: Past Announcements and Newsletters

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Visit this page on our web site for more information: Donations