Update Advent Calendar Fundraiser

To date we have received donations of $399. That's half way to the goal of $800, our annual pledge. See below for lots of detailed information about Christine and Friends of Kenya Rising, and how to give. Thank you!

Draft Minutes from Meeting for Business

The draft minutes of last week's Meeting for Worship for the Conduct of Business are available at https://www.concordfriendsmeeting.org/2022-01-09_CMM_Minutes [1]. Please contact the clerks with any suggested corrections.

COVID Notice Posted at the Meetinghouse.

Welcome to Concord Friends Meeting House!

Thank you for helping us ensure the safety and health of our Meeting by following the guidelines below.

Updated 1-6-22

Please DO NOT enter the building if any of the following apply:

• You are not fully vaccinated and appropriately boosted against COVID-19.
• You have had contact with an infected person in the past 10 days.
• You have traveled to a high risk area in the past 10 days.
• You have a fever, cough, or other viral symptoms.

While in the Meetinghouse please DO the following:

• Wear a mask over your mouth and and nose at ALL TIMES while inside the building.
• Maintain a 6 foot distance from persons not in your household.
• Avoid unnecessary touching of surfaces.
• Use hand sanitizer and/or wash your hands frequently.
• Gloves and N-95 type masks are available for your protection.

Thank you for your cooperation now and in the future as we adapt our policy to changing conditions over time.

Relative to the above, this means...

Additionally, to underscore, this means no eating or drinking indoors. Programs such as adult ed., Fourth Sunday, and Meeting for Business will be online only until further notice. Worship on Thursday evenings and Sunday Morning are continuing as usual for now.

Celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

Here are a few ways to celebrate on January 16 and 17. Thanks go to Maggie Fogarty, AFSC-NH Program Director, for summarizing these four events in one list.

Sunday, January 16 - “What Stories are we telling ourselves and our kids about race?” 7 pm on Zoom. Hosted by the Dover Area Religious Leaders Association (DARLA). Join us for our 2022 Celebration of Dr Martin Luther King Jr., with speakers, music, & discussion groups.

Monday, January 17 - Invisibility: An Art Conversation and Visual Response [2] – 11 am to 12 noon at the Currier Museum, Manchester. Inspired by the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., the Currier Museum of Art will present a live program over Zoom about invisibility and related issues of love and hate. We’ll begin with a conversation about paintings by Norman Lewis and Glenn Ligon and conclude with a collaborative visual response. No art experience is necessary. We encourage adults and children to attend together.

Monday, January 17 - Martin Luther King Celebration 2022 [3] – 1:30 pm to 3 pm. Hosted by MLK Coalition, including AFSC. All are welcome to join the 40th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Community Celebration on Zoom and on Manchester Public Television (MPTS) channel. Free to the Public - Special Guest: Tj Wheeler is a jazz, blues and roots-related concert festival musician and educator. Musical sections by the Manchester High School West Jazz Band. Shared reading from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s sermon “Loving your Enemies” delivered at Dexter Avenue Baptist church (November 17, 1957). We are proud to welcome back the Greater Manchester Area Choir with Director James McKim. The Martin Luther King Coalition is comprised of organizations that are committed to the teachings, beliefs, and principles of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Facebook event here [4].

Monday, January 17 - Peace & Justice Conversations: On the Road to Reparations: The Struggle for Equity and Inclusion in the Granite State [5] – 7 pm to 8 pm. Hosted by NH Peace Action. Please join us for a special Peace & Justice Conversation program honoring Martin Luther King Jr. with special guest Brenda Lett, who has been a leader in racial justice and reparations work for several decades. Our conversation will commemorate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Brenda’s work with the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N’COBRA), which is the premiere mass-based coalition of organizations and individuals organized for the sole purpose of obtaining reparations for African descendants in the United States. We will also discuss what racial equity looks like in a state that resisted celebrating Dr. King’s work for many years and how the Triads of Evil – Racism, Militarism and Extreme consumerism – divert resources and lives away from lasting racial and economic progress.

AFSC-NH Welcomes Ophelia Burnett

January 10, 2022

The American Friends Service Committee’s New Hampshire Program is delighted to announce that Ophelia Burnett has joined our staff as a Healing Justice Organizer intern. A New Hampshire resident for more than 20 years, Ophelia will bring her life experiences and passion to this new role: “I want to build connections among people who have experienced the criminal legal system, and to nurture hope and faith that together we can build the world that we want.”

Ophelia sees this work as an opportunity to prepare herself for a career in law and community organizing. She is an artist, singer and model, and she has a deep desire to help people find their own path of joy and purpose. She loves reading and helping others, and she sustains a regular practice of meditation to keep herself grounded in peace and positivity.

This one-year paid internship, funded by a grant from the NH Charitable Foundation, is designed to support an emerging leader to engage formerly incarcerated people in the work of prison abolition and the creation of a more just and peaceful world.

From AFSC’s website [6]: “To build a more just, peaceful society, we must promote healing—instead of punishment—in the U.S. criminal legal system. The United States currently has the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world, disproportionately impacting poor people and people of color. We advocate for human-centered alternatives to policing and incarceration, better reintegration after prison, an end to prison privatization, more humane conditions of confinement, and ultimately, the abolition of prisons, jails, and detention centers.”

Ophelia began her work with AFSC-NH on January 4, 2022. We are excited to learn from Ophelia and to work together to deepen our engagement with impacted community members as we help to build a movement for healing justice in New Hampshire.

All the best,

Maggie Fogarty, NH Program Director

Grace Kindeke, NH Program Coordinator

The following items have appeared previously in emailed announcements.

Advent Calendar Fundraiser

Have you tallied up your 'abundance' in the Advent Calendar? Based on that (strictly or loosely) it's time to send your donation to Concord Friends Meeting with "Christine" in the memo line. (See below for ways to donate.) Thanks to those of you who have already sent donations.

Some more background: A year ago, Friends of Kakamega merged with another Kakamega social support organization, Crossroads Springs Africa, to become Friends of Kenya Rising. They shared the same mission and realized they could be more effective as one organization. The boarding program was replaced by supporting the children in their homes. In the past several years they had moved toward this model with gifts of solar lights, less polluting cookstoves, and fruit trees to each child's family (you may recall our extra donations toward these efforts).

I encourage you to go to the "Friends of Kenya Rising" website [7] where they state: "Our mission is to assist Kenyan students and their families as they rise out of poverty. Our FAMILY CARE MODEL [8] is our holistic approach to assisting families as they rise out of poverty. Our five guiding stars which symbolize this approach represent Education and Scholarships, Basic Needs, Health, Agriculture and Livelihoods."

Christine's whole family is now being supported by this program and our $800 annual donation. On the bulletin board in the Meetinghouse the children made a display of "before and after" pictures showing the improvements done to her family home 2 years ago, including a hygenic outhouse, attached outdoor kitchen (greatly improving air indoor quality) and new roof. Christine is happy to be living with her family in this much improved home, and she is now in high school! She has 4 siblings. Read her March 2021 letter to us here [9] written just before she took (and passed) her KCPE entrance-to-high school exams. Click here [10] for picture of her and her family in 2020 and here [11] for Christine (in black) and her sister outside their home.

As she says in one letter "My family [greets] you and they are so happy to sponsor us (sic)! They thank you for everything you have done for us." Thank you for your support of Christine!

Youth Religious Ed Committee

New Page on CFM Website - Feedback Invited

In support of three of our many meetinghouse volunteer activities, a new page has been added to our website. The schedule for Greeters, Closers, and Boiler Cleaners is displayed, along with contact information that assists with managing schedule changes. Everyone is encouraged to explore the page as well as consider adding themselves to the list of volunteers! The Website Committee welcomes any feedback or suggestions on this, and any other page or potential page. One aspect of this new page is to initiate conversations about making pages "mobile device friendly", so feedback is eagerly anticipated. Navigation path: CFM home page, click on the Calendar tab (not hover over, it is not on the drop-down menu), use the link at the top of the Calendar page labeled "Greeting, Closing, Boiler Cleaning Assignments."

Access CFM website home page: https://www.concordfriendsmeeting.org [12]

Contact the Website committee: WebClerk [at] ConcordFriendsMeeting [dot] org

Closing the Meetinghouse on Sundays

We sure could use some more help with this weekly work. Presently a rotation of folks have volunteered to do this work over the next two months. If you are able to join them in the rotation toward the end of winter and into the spring, please let JJ know. The current list appears below: Cleaning the boiler is a separate job and help is needed there too. Formerly there were about 8 of us in this rotation.

Ministry and Counsel Announcements

Ongoing programs:

• We continue to offer two book groups that meet online. Currently reading:
  • The Gatherings: Reimagining Indigenous- Settler relations - 2nd and 4th Monday
  • Enrique’s Journey: the story of a boy’s dangerous odyssey to reunite with his mother - Thursdays
• Care groups Tuesday and Wednesday- Join a group to support each other and share our daily lives.
• Quaker Basics - learn the basics of Quakerism. By arrangement with Mark Barker
• Friends Committee on National Legislation: Join NH’s advocacy team to lobby our Congressional Reps on issues of peace and justice. (Sara Smith)

If interested in joining these - check with any member of Ministry and Counsel for details.

Are you wanting information from past announcements?

Visit this page on our web site: Past Announcements [13]

Are you wanting to donate to Concord Monthly Meeting?

Visit this page on our web site for more information: Donations [14]