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(Healthline)

I slept and dreamt that life was joy.  I awoke and saw that life was service.

I acted and behold, service was joy.



~ Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)

An Indian Bengali polymath who worked as a poet,

writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer,

and painter of the Bengal Renaissance.

Kathi C. will be undergoing a risky internal surgery this Friday at 7:15 a.m.  She asks Friends to hold her in the Light for the ability to cling to spiritual wholeness in the face of stressful circumstances.

[2]Come "Sing Your Heart Out" on Friday, February 21^st from 7-9 p.m. at Quaker Meetinghouse at 11 Oxbow Pond Rd, Canterbury (near Exit 17).

Here's our chance to gather together on a cold, dark night to add some light and song to our lives.  We'll focus on songs of hope, peace, justice, and resilience.  Bring your 'Rise Up Singing [3]' and 'Rise Again [4]' songbooks (or borrow ours - we have lots!) and a finger food snack to share in our break for fellowship and food.

Everyone gets a chance to choose a song, and we'll all leave with lifted hearts.  Bring a friend, it's open to all. Contact Ruth H. (RuthH [at] ConcordFriendsMeeting [dot] org (subject: CFM%3A%20Sing%20Your%20Heart%20Out) or 603-724-4343 [5]) if you have questions or if you can bring an instrument and accompany songs.

This event will occur every 3^rd Friday of the month.  Save the dates!  We moved it to avoid a conflict with the First Friday High Street Coffeehouse at Boscawen Congregational Church (which is a great event also).  Their February 7^th feature is Tom Smith.  Find out more at: Tom Smith at High St Coffee House [6]

February 23^rd’s Fourth Sunday Program will be a conversation about the moment we are in and what it calls for from us.  We will engage each other around what resources we have to help us maintain inner peace in order to effectively make an external witness to peace and justice in tumultuous times.  Some of the questions we will ponder follow.

How can we pursue outcomes peacefully, all the while realizing there will be conflict?  What gives us strength to be the kind of people we want to be when confronted with injustice of any kind?   What stands in the way of us holding that inner peace required to react with love and not hate?  What helps us attain and maintain that inner peace?  How can we love our enemies or those who are harming others?

How can we be in relationship with those who stand for something we abhor?  How can we help each other with a difficult but necessary task of being true to our own calling as witnesses for peace and the greater good?

What resources does each of us bring?  What do we need?  How can we help each other?  What can we get from each other?  

We hope that you will prepare for our conversation by finding some time for reflection beforehand.  If you’d like to write something or share something that has spoken to you, please feel free.  But none of that is necessary – you can just come to listen and share as led during the worship sharing.

One resource that may be helpful if reading a pamphlet beforehand appeals to you is available in electronic format from Pendle Hill (https://pendlehill.org/product/quaker-witness-sacrament/ [7]),  Quaker Witness as Sacrament by Daniel Snyder, Pendle Hill Pamphlet #397 (2008).  A sample quote, coming from the author leading a class on the topic at Pendle Hill:

“It is a practice that seeks ongoing transformation in the inner world, in the immediate relational worlds of which we are a part, and in the political world for which we share responsibility.  We learned that being awake to the Presence of God does not take us away from the world but allows us to be even more deeply in it and that our engagement in the world creates a necessity for prayer in our lives.  We came to understand this inward/outward path as sacramental.  Quaker witness is an outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible Grace.  This is the classic definition of a sacrament.  It means to live, walk, speak, and act in the world, not as our anger, guilt, fear, or despair shapes it for us, not as our personal hopes or political ideologies would shape it for us, but as it is re-shaped, again and again, in our ongoing encounters with God.”

[9]“How do systems change?  How can we move towards the just economies we need and want?  The natural process of ecological replacement highlights two mechanisms at work in replacing a complex system that dominates the landscape and seems too big to challenge.  Succession relies in part on incremental change, the slow, steady replacement of that which does not serve ecological flourishing with new communities.  But it also relies on disturbance, on disruption of the status quo in order to let new species emerge and flower.  ... I want to see emerging gift economies nurtured in the gaps carved out of the overbearing market economy”

Peter Blood-Patterson's First Monday Lecture explores rest and living in faith, letting go of the patterns of urgency and societal conditioning to learn new ways of being with God and each other.

Can we live more deeply in faith and hope?  Can we let go of urgency, overwork, and the need to know how things will turn out?  Peter will reflect on his journey from being raised as a cisgender white male, addicted to being in charge and “right,” to searching for peace in brokenness, mending relationships, and resting in God’s love.  He will explore how two biblical passages on living in faith and rest, Hebrews 11 [10] and Isaiah 30:15-18 [11], have been companions for him this year – and have opened doors to learning new ways to be with God and others.

The talk will be followed by group reflection and sharing.

Free to the public.

We have a special opportunity coming up in March and Ministry and Counsel hopes you'll set aside time in your calendar now.  We will not be holding a program on 4^th Sunday in March.  Instead, a very special program is set for 5^th Sunday and we are hoping for a strong turnout.  Friends will be coming from all over our Quarter.  The Meetings in our Quarterly Meeting include Weare/Henniker, Dover, West Epping Preparative Meeting, North Sandwich, River Woods Worship Group (Exeter), and Gonic.  Such an opportunity!  And the program is especially important. 

New England Yearly Meeting is going through changes and needs to hear from Friends far and wide regarding the summer sessions and various alternatives to the current model.  Whether you have ever attended a NEYM summer session does not matter.  How the YM will meet the needs of individuals and Meetings in our changing times matters to all of us.  We hope you will make time to be present on 5^th Sunday in March.  Stay tuned for more information as the weeks pass.

You are invited to register for the annual weekend Teen Retreat at Providence Friends Meeting in Rhode Island.  The registration link has now been fixed, so please register when you have a chance!

Unlike typical Young Friends retreats, this retreat is open to 13 and 14 year olds as well as high school age youth, so if you have a younger sibling or friend in that age range you can invite them to come along and get a preview of what Young Friends is like!

We will have dinner and opening activities on Friday night, and spend most of the day Saturday at Discernment Discovery Day (formerly Living Faith).  We will recuperate as a group for retreat activities on Saturday evening at Providence Friends Meeting and will wrap up on Sunday afternoon after worship with the host meeting.  The schedule for Discernment Discover Day is as follows:

You will need to register for one of the afternoon workshops.  A description of the workshops can be found here [15]. There is a question on the registration page for the Teen Retreat where you will choose which workshop you are registering for.  Note that you will not have to fill out the separate registration for the intergenerational Discernment Discovery Day, you only have to fill out the registration for the Teen Retreat.

​Registration will close on Friday, March 7^th.

For more information and to register click here [16].

The silent vigil for a ceasefire in Gaza continues every Thursday from Noon-1 p.m.  The vigil meets at (the northwest corner of) North Main Street and Park Street in Concord [18] on the plaza in front of the State House.  Make your own sign, use one provided, or just stand in silent witness beside 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.

The draft minutes for the February 2025 meeting for worship with attention to business are available at 2025-02-09_CMM_Minutes [19] or via Minutes_of_ConcordMonthlyMeeting [20].

For corrections, missing documents, and/or clarifications of the minutes, please reply to WebClerk [at] ConcordFriendsMeeting [dot] org (subject: CMM%20Minutes%20for%202nd%20Month) .

There are other online Meetings for Worship that are generally available to Quakers, unlimited by geography, if that would be of interest. Some of those are listed here.