To request log-in information for Zoom Worship: Zoom [at] ConcordFriendsMeeting [dot] org (subject: %E2%80%9CWorship%E2%80%9D%20Zoom%20Link%20Request) .

Spring is when you feel like whistling

Even with a shoe full of slush

~ Doug Larson (1926-2017), Columnist and editor

The Meeting Calendar

Day	Date	Time	Event
Sunday	March 31st	9:00 a.m. 10:00 a.m.	Book Group Meeting for Worship First Day School:  TBD Helper:  Greg Closing:  Sharon & Juliet
Tuesday	April 2nd	6:30 p.m.	Midweek Worship at the Meeting House.  All are welcome.  If possible, please let Rich know you will be joining us. klnschmdt [at] gmail [dot] com (subject: Mid-week%20Worship) (603-899-7574)
Sunday	April 7th	10:00 a.m. Rise of Meeting	Meeting for Worship & Fellowship. First Day School:  TBD; Helper:  Dave; Closing:  Kathy U and Elaine PSECC Discernment (Soup provided!)

First meeting is Sunday, March 31^st at 9 a.m. at the Meetinghouse.  Please be prompt so we can have a whole hour before singing!  We'll share our impressions of the Introduction and Chapter 1 "The Practice of Waking up to God".  The book is available via Hoopla (online library service) in audiobook or E-book, and in paperback at Gibson's in Concord.

A walk has been scheduled for Thursday, April 4^th at 10:30 a.m.  The trail name is the Marjorie Swope Park trail.

The trailhead is on Long Pond Road which is off Pleasant Street.  Pleasant Street becomes Hopkinton Road.

Join us at rise of Meeting on Sunday, April 7 for soup (which we will provide), worship sharing and discernment in response to the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) request for our discernment on national legislative priorities. We are asked to identify five priorities (in no particular order) to share with FCNL, which, when combined with similar discernment from other Meetings, will form the basis of FCNL's legislative lobbying for 2024. Below is a link providing examples of priorities in previous years along with other background information about FCNL.

As you go about your group's discernment on what should be FCNL's Legislative Priorities for the 119th Congress, we want to inform you of the main areas in which FCNL is currently placing its resources -- time, lobbyists, and grassroots networks -- as more context for how FCNL does its lobbying. 

These issue areas are: Economic Justice, Sustainable Energy and Environment, Justice Reform and Gun Violence Prevention, Just Migration, Native American Concerns, Middle East Policy, Nuclear Nonproliferation, Pentagon Spending, International Peace Building, U.S. Wars and Militarism, and Voting and Elections.   

Most of the priorities that groups have brought forward in the past have fallen into one of these broad areas. As individual bills come up in Congress, FCNL staff decide whether to work on it by considering the content and purpose of each bill, whether it has been designated a priority through the discernment process, how it fits into FCNL's strategy for each of these areas, FCNL’s value added in advocating on the issue, congressional opportunities, and whether FCNL staff have the expertise, capacity and resources to work on that bill.  Please click on the link below for more information.

https://www.fcnl.org/about/world-we-seek/legislative-priorities?akid=503... [3]. Click or tap to follow the link.">https://www.fcnl.org/about/world-we-seek/legislative-priorities

The silent vigil for a ceasefire in Gaza continues every Thursday from Noon-1pm at the plaza in front of the State House.  Make your own sign, use one provided, or just stand in silent witness besides others. This is done in coordination with NH Peace Action.  We suggest that people make signs that convey something about justice for Israel and Palestine.  Also please avoid the word genocide, ethnic cleansing, and similar terms.

PSECC Committee

Dover Quarter will meet on April 14 at 1 pm. This will be a hybrid meeting - on-site at Dover Friends Meeting and on Zoom. We are meeting this day because the 5th Sunday, March 31st, is Easter. I hope Friends are able to make this new time. Concord has let me know that this is the day of their Meeting for Business but I am hopeful that with the hybrid option some Friends will be able to join.

An important item on the agenda will be consideration of New England Evangelical Friends request to formally become a monthly meeting within the Quarter. A committee from the Quarter met with members of NE Evangelical Friends recently and are clear to recommend this step.

I will send out the rest of the agenda and minutes from our last meeting later, if you have additional items you would like to add, please let me know.

—Jeremiah

In a new letter released during Holy Week ahead of Easter and addressed to the United States president and other political leaders, more than 140 Bishops and executive leaders from churches, denominations, and church-based organizations in the United States and around the world call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, urge the U.S. and other world powers to halt additional arms sales to Israel, and make clear that Israel, the U.S., and all countries must abide by the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. In addition to Friends United Meeting General Secretary Kelly Kellum, the letters’ signers include a U.S. Catholic Bishop, a Catholic Cardinal, the presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the presiding bishop and primate of the Episcopal Church, an Anglican Dean, and many others from a wide range of churches, including Catholic, Lutheran, Mennonite, Quaker, and Evangelical leaders.

March 26, 2024

As Christians around the world prepare to commemorate the final suffering in the earthly life of Jesus Christ during Holy Week, we stand in solidarity with all in the Holy Land who suffer. During Passion Week, Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox alike engage in prayer, reflection, and repentance. We repent of the ways we have not stood alongside our Palestinian siblings in faithful witness in the midst of their grief, agony, and sorrow. Christian witness and engagement with the world must be marked by faithfulness to God, love of neighbor, and mercy toward those who are suffering and in need. For the Holy Scriptures teach, “Uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed.” (Psalm 82:3).

As the ongoing devastation, bombing, and ground invasion in Gaza continue into their sixth month, Palestinians, including our Palestinian Christian siblings, cry out to the world, asking, “Where are you?” World leaders have responded with empty rhetoric and political volleying about addressing the “humanitarian crisis” in Gaza while ignoring the direct causes of the catastrophe. Those causes are the daily bombing and ground invasion by the Israeli military, in addition to the shutting off of basic life-sustaining services to more than two million people who are suffering the consequences of crimes not their own.

As of March 25, 2024 [4], at least 32,333 people in Gaza have been killed, and more than 74,694 have been injured, the vast majority of them women and children. Gaza has been declared one of the most dangerous places in the world to live, where “no place is safe [5]” according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). The World Health Organization (WHO) describes the situation as desperate, as children are dying from hunger and dehydration. The WHO reports that 15 percent [6] of children under the age of two in northern Gaza show signs of wasting, suggesting a serious and rapid decline over just a few months, which is unprecedented globally [6]. The horrific actions Hamas committed on October 7th in no way justify the massive deaths of tens of thousands of civilians in Gaza at the hands of the Israeli military.

The average number of people killed every day in Gaza is just under two hundred people a day, with roughly one person dying every eight minutes. The slaughter continues every day even as more and more men, women, and children are pulled out from underneath the rubble, and more than 1.8 million people remain displaced. As of late January, reports [7] indicate more than half of Gaza’s buildings have been damaged or destroyed. All of this compounds the devastation that Palestinians have experienced during Israel’s 16+ year blockade of Gaza and the occupation of East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza since 1967.

Palestinians, South Africans, and experts around the world have said what is happening in Gaza is nothing less than a genocide. South Africa asserted that the Israeli government engaged in action with “genocidal intent [8]” in its complaint at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).The ICJ’s preliminary ruling found it “plausible that Israel’s acts [in Gaza] could amount to genocide [9]” and issued provisional measures to seekto prevent further deaths. By the end of February, human rights groups around the world asserted Israel had already violated [10] the ICJ ruling by intentionally limiting humanitarian assistance to Gaza. The global church—and world—cannot be silent as people continue to die in Gaza by military assault, lack of adequate medical care, hunger, and disease.

The U.S., the U.K., Israel, and other countries must uphold their responsibility as signatories to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The United States and other nations’ further militarization of the conflict makes no one safer and instead prolongs suffering and causes more death and destruction. We call on the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, and France to join the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Italy, and Japanto halt additional military support and arms to Israel and not be complicit in the ongoing military campaign that is having such devastating effects on civilians in Gaza. 

We say, “Enough killing!” and together demand a comprehensive and permanent ceasefire. 

On October 7th, Hamas attacked southern Israel and killed approximately 1,200 Israelis and internationals, and took more than 240 people hostage in Gaza. We have been clear in our condemnation of these actions of Hamas, which were an atrocious crime. It is believed 100 hostages or more [11] could still be held captive in Gaza. We have consistently called for the remaining hostages to be returned home to their families. 

We, as global Christian leaders, stand with our brothers and sisters in Christ in Palestine and around the world and say the killing must stop, and the violence must be brought to an end. We ask world leaders to exercise strong moral courage to bring an immediate end to the violence and to open a pathway toward peace and an end to the conflict. We call for a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire where all combatants lay down their weapons and Israeli hostages and Palestinian political prisoners held without the due process of law are released. Immediate and adequate humanitarian assistance must be provided for the more than two million Palestinian people in Gaza who have such desperate needs. We support efforts toward a negotiated settlement that addresses the core causes of the current crisis and brings an end to the decades-long violations of the rights of the Palestinian people in accordance with international law, such solutions must advance security and self-determination for Israelis and Palestinians. As we prepare for Holy Week, we lament and pray for comfort for all who have lost loved ones over the past months in Gaza, East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Israel. We know that Jesus himself was among those who suffered, and he comforted the brokenhearted. We say, “Enough atrocities in Gaza; enough violence, death, and destruction! May love triumph over hate.” We hold onto the hope that peace is possible even in the midst of this darkest hour.

[12] JYM: Junior Yearly Meeting [13]

(Retreat June 14-16 for grades 1-6)

  JHYM: Junior High Yearly Meeting [14]                             

(Retreat May 3-5 for grades 6-8)

[15] Local Youth Ministers [16] Supporting Each Other  [17]                                              

  (April 22nd)         



[18]  Quaker Family Retreat

(May 10-12) [19] 

 

https://neym.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=9d926a263c32aba63d418859... [20]. Click or tap to follow the link.">Registration is now open for the upcoming Living Faith gathering, which will be held on Saturday, April 6, 2024, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Friends Academy in North Dartmouth Massachusetts. 

Whether this is your first chance to attend or you’re a returning Living Faith participant, we hope you’ll consider being part of this latest experiment with Living Faith. Your presence will enrich us all. 

https://neym.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=9d926a263c32aba63d418859... [21]. Click or tap to follow the link.">More information on Living Faith is available on the Yearly Meeting website. 



CLICK HERE TO REGISTER [22]

May 24 - 26, USFWI - Northeast Region - Spring Gathering, Poughkeepsie, NY. (in-person).

https://friendsunitedmeeting.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=77b72b10... [23]. Click or tap to follow the link.">Download Registration form here.

Program highlights will include:

• Friday, May 24 Gather for supper and an evening of open worship and introductions.
• Saturday, May 25 Early devotion led by one of our women Friends pastors.

Keynote speaker: Getry Agizah, from Kenya.