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Wikipedia

“Election days come and go. But the struggle of the people to create a government which represents all of us and not just the one percent - a government based on the principles of economic, social, racial and environmental justice - that struggle continues”.

Bernie Sanders (1941-Present)

An American politician and activist who is the senior

United States senator from Vermont

(Note: new earlier time at 6:30pm this Friday)

We've had rousing Song Circles these past months, and we certainly need them!  Singing together lifts my spirits and gives me hope, especially songs like "Give Light", "We Will Rise",  "Step by Step", "Lead with Love".  If you don't know these yet, come and learn them!  What song(s) help you get through these chaotic and painful times?  Let me know (603-724-4343) and if you can't lead it yourself, I'll try to learn and lead it.

We meet as usual on the third Friday (April 18) but at 6:30 p.m. at the Quaker Meetinghouse (11 Oxbow Pond Rd).  As always, bring your Rise Again and Rise Up Singing songbooks (or borrow ours).   Bring a little treat to share and a friend and we'll all leave feeling lighter and more hopeful than when we arrived.

Ministry and Counsel invite everyone to join prior to regular worship.  Friends are encouraged to come share about finding the strength to sing and rejoice as publishers of Truth, helping each other to maintain hope amidst darkness and despair.  We will have a period of silence between this worship-sharing before the beginning of regular Meeting for Worship at 10:15.  Mark and Jennifer will co-lead this with Mark online and Jennifer in the room.  To have sufficient time, we hope to start at 9:15 though Friends are encouraged to join later if they cannot get there on time.  This will be hybrid using the M4W link.

Friends. I am happy to announce that the AFSC NH program will be able to visit us the fourth Sunday in April after potluck. They will give us all the news about the many areas of their work in New Hampshire some of which are so new you might not be familiar with them. It will be a great time to get to know them and hear about their work in immigration, faith and labor organizing, and transitioning women from incarceration to being part of the wider community. We will also be having a conversation time with Grace Kindeke  on a different date TBD.

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Every other month we spend about half an hour after Fellowship cleaning up the Meetinghouse.  Usually this is done on Third Sundays, but with Mothers' Day in May we are switching to First Sunday.  Now that spring warmth is on the way there will be both indoor and outdoor opportunities.  We keep the work period short so that it feels easier to squeeze into our busy days.  We hope you will be able to stay a bit longer on May 4th, but certainly understand that your plans may not fit in with our schedule.  We always "get by with a little help from our Friends."

The draft minutes for the April 2025 Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business are available at https://www.concordfriendsmeeting.org/2025-04-13_CMM_Minutes [4]. Click or tap to follow the link.">2025-04-13_CMM_Minutes or via https://www.concordfriendsmeeting.org/Minutes_of_ConcordMonthlyMeeting [5]. Click or tap to follow the link.">Minutes_of_ConcordMonthlyMeeting

For corrections, missing documents, and/or clarifications of the minutes, please reply to web clerk, Concord Friends Meeting webclerk [at] concordfriendsmeeting [dot] org (<webclerk [at] concordfriendsmeeting [dot] org>).

Friends at Concord Meeting are deeply aware of our blessings, and gratitude was an overwhelming response when reflecting on the state of our Society in 2024.

• Gratitude for the welcome felt by a newcomer.  
• For the spiritual nourishment received from the Meeting.
• For the sharing of our spiritual journeys.
• For the role models we are for one another.
• For way in which we build leadership skills.
• For a variety of social and recreational opportunities.
• For the car pool that saves energy and creates friendships.
• For the efforts made to keep us all healthy.
• For the ability to attend worship online
• For the many efforts Friends make to reach out to one another.

We recognize that these points of thankfulness are widely held and help to define our faith community.

To be sure, hunger, homelessness, wars, fear, and all manner of insecurity abound in this world.  Though, for the most part, free from these circumstances, we are made all the more aware of our blessings and privilege.  We are challenged to find ways to be of use, and this is the Spirit at work among us.

The corporate power that flows from this Spirit is directed largely, though not exclusively, inward toward one another.  People speak of the centrality of the Meeting in their lives and how the community supports their efforts to rise to and live out the shared values in their day to day lives.  The Meeting is a strong countervailing force in the face of the dominant culture.  That is to say, the Meeting enables us on our paths to improve the quality of the interactions we have in our family lives, work and community lives, and within the Meeting community.  One Friend commented, “The Meeting teaches me to listen deeply.”  Another offered, “The Meeting supports me in the daily struggle to live the commandment to love your “enemies” in a way that goes way beyond an intellectual understanding and rises to a way of being in the world.”

This spirit moving also leads many individuals into a variety of forms of activism such as foster parenting, political campaigning, legislative watch dogging, letter writing, vigiling, and advocating for and supporting marginalized individuals or groups.  The Meeting has sponsored a weekly public vigil for peace and justice in Gaza.  Noteworthy is the fact that it has been upheld by a very small group of Friends.  Similarly the Peace, Social, and Environmental Concerns Committee, while active this year, is constituted by a very small group.  This year the Meeting acquired a Peace Pole inscribed in eight languages, “May peace prevail on earth.”  It will be installed in 2025.

Attendance at Meeting for Worship continues to hover from fifteen to twenty-five and the average age of Meeting members is on the rise.  Those of us present on Sunday mornings feel delight as each person enters the Meeting Room or joins online.  Several younger people have begun attending Meeting this year, and we hope they are the beginning of a trend.  We know that numbers and ages are not what matters most.  Friends express a deep sense of fulfillment that derives from the spoken ministry and the silence, and we trust that, in time, more Friends will heed the promptings of the spirit toward vocal ministry.  There is a sense that we are a place that is mostly free from judgements of one another.  Voicing this aspiration more often may act as an encouragement.

We miss having a full First Day School and feel joyful when young ones come to Meeting.  We are always ready for them.  One First Day School teacher commented on the need for more children saying, “They cause me to articulate my faith.  We seek to pass it along and it certainly helps me as much as the children.”

We have a firm conviction that the Quaker message is as relevant today as it ever was and that people yearn for what the Meeting offers.  How will we lift our light out from under the bushel?  One Friend directed an observation to the assembly, “Through the years, as people have come and gone, you are exactly who needs to be here, beautiful, inspiring, and perfect.”

Various City of Concord Departments and Committees will provide updates on sustainability and clean energy initiatives, including the siting of significant solar projects within the city. Opportunities for citizen community input and comment will be part of the evening.

Please RSVP by clicking https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe2SD1qiaUeHMBeukLbsGtdsLmn9MOk... [8]. Click or tap to follow the link.">HERE.

(This will familiarize anyone interested in volunteering. No commitment is required.  To date there have been no requests for sanctuary at this time).

The Sanctuary Asylum Committee of the Manchester UU Church continues to seek volunteers for day and overnight on-premise shifts to ensure 24-hour coverage when the church has a sanctuary guest in residence. Currently there are 8 volunteers for overnight shifts and 18 for daytime shifts.  If you want to volunteer or have already volunteered and want to attend the next orientation session, please contact Liz Alcauskas (lizalcauskas [at] gmail [dot] com) or Curt Smith (blueskies3 [at] comcast [dot] net).

The next Sanctuary Asylum Volunteer Orientation is Saturday, May 17^th, 9:30 a.m. to Noon, at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 669 Union Street, Manchester, NH.

“… Three students — in the third, tenth and eleventh grades — had been arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel…

“… Teachers and school officials, in shock and initially unsure what to do, talked among themselves and resolved not to cry in front of their students. But within a few hours, they decided to start seeking answers.  The local teachers union sent around a list with the phone numbers and email addresses for officials across New York, and school officials began to make calls in between classes and during planning periods.  In their first calls and emails, they reached out to local, state and federal representatives and advocacy groups and pleaded for help to get the children and their mother released...

“The family had been attending court hearings in New York to secure legal status, according to local officials and immigration advocates tracking the case…

“…Days passed without further information, and the teachers remained worried — and impatient.  That weekend, one teacher figured out how to use ICE’s online detainee locator system, and soon found that the students had been transferred to a family detention center in Texas.  Another teacher began to receive daily calls from the eldest student who had been detained.

“ An immigration advocacy group advised the teachers that their best bet was to draw some attention, so that Sunday, the teachers started making calls again, reaching out to even more officials and media outlets to draw attention to the children’s plight…  Amid the flurry of calls, St. Croix was connected with the local Democratic Party group, the Jefferson County Democratic Committee, which soon announced that it would organize a rally calling for the family’s release.  Local media picked up the story…

“By Tuesday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) was publicly slamming ICE’s detention of the family, calling it ‘plain cruel’ and saying she ‘cannot think of any public safety justification for ICE agents to rip an innocent family, including a child in the third grade, from their Sackets Harbor home.’

“… On…Saturday afternoon… roughly 1,000 rallygoers — many locals, but some traveling from as far away as Manhattan — congregated outside the Sackets Harbor Visitor Center, with many holding up signs in support of the children.  Some of the signs read: “Return the children. Deport Homan!” “It’s not about left or right. It’s about what is right” and “Due process makes America great.”

“…After the march, organizers said they were relieved to see the rally go off without any issues and to see so many people turn out in support of the students.  Still, they wondered whether their efforts would result in the children’s release.

“ Less than two days later, Cook had her answer.  Cook woke up Monday morning to a missed call from the teacher who had been in contact with the family.  The teacher had received a call in the middle of the night from ICE confirming that the family was being released…

“‘It just feels world-altering.  My faith in community has been reinforced,’ Cook said, pausing to take a breath and choose her words.  “I’m just amazed at what a small group of people can accomplish if they just refuse to give up.’

“On Wednesday morning, the students were back in their classrooms.”

Join us for a 90-minute interactive online workshop which is an opportunity to try a creative approach to personal discernment.

Discernment requires an emotionally safe environment to build trust, informed by deep listening. Once safe, we can take on the important discernment questions by using Virginia Swain’s mentor, Friend/elder Elise Boulding‘s imaging process, a way to use our imagination for discerning the answers to our life’s questions.

Imaging plays a key role in our lives because we cannot reconcile a challenge at the level it was created. Participants are asked to bring a discernment question with them as well as art supplies such as paper, markers, colored pencils. 

Facilitated by Virginia Swain (Friends Meeting at Cambridge). More information about Virginia's ministry can be found on her website https://virginiaswain.com/ [10]. Click or tap to follow the link.">here.

This workshop is offered free of charge.

You are invited to register for our Spring Retreat. The theme will be "Nurturing Creative & Spiritual Practices."

​Young Friends retreats are special opportunities for high schoolers in New England to take a deeper dive into building community and exploring the Quaker way together. Join Young Friends for a weekend at Framingham Friends Meeting where we will explore art, music, worship, and other practices that give meaning to our personal and communal lives. 

​About staying at Framingham Friends Meeting

When staying at meeting houses everyone is expected to bring a pillow, sleeping bag, and sleeping pad in order to sleep on the floor. If this poses a challenge for you or your child please reach out to Collee (collee [at] neym [dot] org)

​Payment​

Pricing for the retreat is pay-as-led sliding scale. $50 is great for families with a limited budget, $150 covers direct costs, $250 covers all costs.

Registration will close on April 28^th, 2025. Register https://neym.us12.list-manage.com/track/click?u=9d926a263c32aba63d418859... [11]. Click or tap to follow the link.">here today.

The 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) [12] 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 coordinated by NH Peace Action.  We suggest that people make signs that convey something about justice for Israel and Palestine.

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.