Community Companion. Quaker House: 3960 Winding Way, Cincinnati, OH (513)

Transcription

1 Community Companion Quaker House: 3960 Winding Way, Cincinnati, OH (513) Volume 17, Issue 9 September, 2011 Presiding Clerk: Frank Huss Assistant Clerk: Kate Anthony Recording Clerk: Treasurer: Mary Anne Curtiss Ministry and Counsel: Eileen Bagus Erin Bagus (SA) Byron Branson Lisa Cayard Rachel Ernst Evie Hoffmann Frank Huss (ex officio) Tim Leonard Sunny Rhein (SA) (SA) is special assignment Outdoor worship Photo by Eugenia Mills Newsletter: Deborah Jordan djordan@fuse.net Editor: Jean Crocker-Lakness j.crockerlakness@gmail.com Submissions for the October newsletter due by: Monday, September 26, 2011 Calendar All events and meetings take place at the Meeting House unless otherwise noted. Singing 9:45 am, Meeting for Worship 10 am Second Hour or Carry in 11:40 am Sept. 4 Carry In Potluck Meal after Meeting for Worship FUN Committee appreciates and encourages locally grown food when possible Sept. 11 Second Hour: Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business Sept. 17 FUN Work Day 10:00-12:00 noon Sept. 18 th First Hour: outdoor worship Second Hour: Learn all about First Day Sept. 24 Quaker Quest- see page 6 In This Issue: Page 2-3 Summary of Minutes Eighth Month 14, 2011 Page 4-5 Send off for Rachel Logan Wood Page 5 First Day School Page 6 Quaker Quest, Campaign Finance Reform Minute Page 6-7 Protect your vote by Jennifer Wolff Page 7-9 Corporations are Dinosaurs, My Friends by Rhonda Pfaltzgraff-Carlson Page 9-10 Women War and Peace on PBS Page 10 Salt and Light Ninth Query from OVYM Book of Discipline, 1978: General Business Procedure Do you hold your meetings for business in a spirit of worship? Do you seek the guidance of God, rather than acceptance of a previously formed opinion? Do you help one another in your search for unity by speaking briefly and without repetition? Are you tender and considerate of differing views, coming to a decision on when you have, with Divine assistance, found a sense of Unity?

2 Community Companion September, 2011 page 2 Summary of Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business Eighth Month 14, Meeting began with a period of silent worship. 2. Clerk's Table We were reminded of the Rubber Duck Regatta, a Free Store fundraiser. It was mentioned that Quakers do not generally support gambling. Clerk Frank Huss read a post card sent from his recent trip to Mongolia. We have received a letter and DVD from OVYM P&SC regarding "Life in Occupied Palestine." A minute from Yearly Meeting was read encouraging action for Palestine; these materials will be given to CFM P&SC Clerk and the DVD placed in our library. 3. Minutes from Seventh Month - well received with one spelling correction. 4. FWCC (Friends World Committee for Consultation) in preparation for the Triennial in April 2012 is bringing information on refugee concerns in Kenya to local Meetings through a two hour discussion and potluck to be held Our Meetinghouse was suggested due to our central location. Approved: hosting this event with a potluck preceding it at 5:30. Community Committee will be notified and P&SC will be asked to announce the event at Winding Way. 5. Request by Ministry and Counsel: Designate a fund for donations supporting prison ministry Eileen Bagus is actively engaged in prison ministry and has a support committee in place. A designated fund will be useful to her and others for several reasons: -Identification of a non-budgeted fund will highlight need -tax deductions for charitable donations can be made through Meeting -The fund will allow prospective donors to identify resources provided for individual former inmates as coming from Community Friends Meeting, rather than a personal benefactor. Request was Approved. Everyone was encouraged to keep in mind that best practice for any disbursement by our treasurer is a signed request from a specific committee of the Meeting. 6. Presiding Clerk read a letter drafted by Marjorie Isaacs encouraging FCNL to work on Campaign Finance Reform as soon as way opens due to the continually increasing influences of private corporations on voters and legislators. Letter was approved and will be forwarded by Presiding Clerk to FCNL. Copy in this newsletter on page 6 7. Nominating Committee Nominating Committee requested additional members be named by MFWAB as Nominating Committee cannot name its own members. Sue Brungs's offer to serve was approved with gratitude. Other members of Community Friends who also would be willing to participate in this committee are encouraged to step forward. 8. Treasurer's Report - Current bank account, including funds requested from our resources held by Pax World Fund ($1,250.00), are at 4%, which is typical for this time of year. However, we anticipate a bill for $1, for tree work this month, which will create a shortfall-causing delay in contributions to wider Quaker bodies if additional contributions are not received. Appreciation was expressed for funding of childcare, as families with children have been attending recently, and our current Xavier student care provider is bringing engaging projects for the children each week. 9. Committee Reports A. Ministry and Counsel is recommending going forward with Quaker Quest (next step: day long workshop) in addition to our annual Renewal day-long Renewal/retreat, this year having an intergenerational theme. B. House and Grounds is planning to paint some hall areas; a work day for late October-early November is proposed. We will be changing our utility source from Duke Energy to Cincinnati Bell Green Energy. C. Friends in Unity with Nature (FUN) Judy Trombly and Sue Brungs will be co-clerks. FUN had a very hot but productive woods work day Next woods work day: , 10:00-12:00 to help protect trees from vine damage. Community Companion September, 2011 page 3

3 D. Community - bought a volleyball set for Quaker Teens and visiting groups. (below David Funck, John Sniegocki, and Eric Wolff do the set up- Editor) A Goodbye potluck for Rachel Logan-Wood, who is going to attend Olney Friends School, will be held next First Day , following outdoor Meeting for Worship. (see pages 4-5 for photos) E. Library - a new revolving rack displays Pendle Hill Pamphlets, thanks to Eileen Bagus's keen observation at a yard sale. 10. Wider Quaker Bodies A. OVYM (Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting) We need to remember to appoint a Community Friends representative to OVYM before next yearly meeting. (chronic problem) B. Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) This year's annual Lobbying Training Day focusing on peace in Afghanistan will be ; FCNL's priority-setting annual conference will be 11-4 through 6, C. Metropolitan Area Religious Coalition of Cincinnati (MARCC) is actively seeking donations to assist with focus of activity on immigration reform and city-wide housing concerns. Thanks were expressed for the exceptional potluck which sustained us through today's meeting. Respectfully Submitted, Marjorie McKelvey Isaacs, ad hoc volunteer recorder Community Companion September, 2011 page 4

4 News from the Meeting: Friendly send off to Olney Friends School for Rachel Logan Wood at the rise of Meeting on Some of the faces behind the sendoff: Tom Zalla prepares the punch; Sue Brungs and Sherry Marshall prepare desserts. Community Companion September, 2011 page 5

5 Lisa Cayard with grandchildren Coen and Aubrey Welcome back to First Day School on The Religious Development elves have been busily preparing for the start of First Day School. We welcome the presence of children and know that they are an important part of our Meeting community. First Day School will begin on Children are invited to be in worship with their families and the rest of the community for the first fifteen minutes (as during the summer). They will then go quietly upstairs to their class (instead of to the basement playroom). Thanks to Lisa Cayard, we have a 3 year curriculum rotation that gives our children a good grounding in Quaker beliefs, practices, and the Bible. This year the focus is on the Quaker testimonies. We also are circulating a sign up for potential First Day teachers; Friends sign up to teach for a 5 week term. The first Sunday of the month is led by Marjorie Isaacs who guides the children through ways to center and connect with the Spirit in worship; this is a chance for the designated teacher to participate with our young Friends in experiential worship. The other Sundays will be based on the Testimonies curriculum. If you would like to learn more about the curriculum and First Day School, please come to our Second Hour program on Sept. 18 th. Besides the class of elementary-aged children, we will continue to have a nursery and a teen program. Babies and toddlers can stay with their families for the first 15 minutes or go immediately to the nursery room on the 2 nd floor where our childcare provider, Megan DeRosier, awaits. Megan is part of a wonderful line of Xavier students who have provided childcare over the past 10 years. Our teens will be studying Quaker testimonies under the guidance of Wilhelmina Branson and Tim Leonard. They usually meet twice a month. If you know of any teens who might want to participate, please contact Wilhelmina Branson or one of the committee. Religious Development Committee supports the spiritual development of our children and teens through the following: planning curriculum and recruiting teachers, producing an annual Christmas play and other intergenerational activities, promoting youth activities among the 3 Quaker Meetings in Cincinnati, and sponsoring field trips. Many members of the committee take on teaching responsibilities, but this is not expected nor required. We appreciate having both parents and nonparents on the committee. Religious Development Committee: Jim Rhein and Lynn Funck, co-clerks Erin Bagus, Wilhelmina Branson, Lisa Cayard, David Funck, Marjorie Isaacs (special assignments) Deborah Jordan

6 Community Companion September, 2011 page 6 Quaker Quest Workshop Sept. 24th Community Meeting will be holding the full day Quaker Quest workshop sponsored by FGC on September 24. This workshop will strengthen "in reach" by building community, helping us get to know one another more deeply, and considering how to include newcomers into the life of the community. We will learn what Quaker Quest is all about, and consider whether the Spirit is moving our meeting forward to proceed with the public Quaker Quest sessions as an outreach process. This workshop is not a commitment, but a way to find out if we are led to continue with the process. Everyone in the meeting is invited and encouraged to attend. This workshop will be a very active day, and will not really provide time for reflection and renewal. Instead of calling this workshop our fall renewal, it was decided that Ministry and Counsel should plan another renewal event, either later this fall or early next year, which will be more relaxed, with intergenerational activities to include children and families. Ministry and Counsel welcomes suggestions for a local venue for an overnight family camp experience that is close to Cincinnati so that Friends can commute if they prefer not to stay overnight. Campaign Finance Reform Below is the letter that was approved by Community Monthly Meeting as a minute to send to FCNL. Addressing Campaign Finance Reform Before Another Election We of Community Friends Meeting, Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting ask that FCNL advocate for Campaign Finance Reform as way opens, starting now, through November. Please begin now, as fair elections are the keystone of representative government. Rationale: Campaign Finance Reform lacks the immediate appeal of other legislative goals Friends have chosen as FCNL's highest priorities. However, the new ability of corporations to donate any amount they choose and give it anonymously to political candidates is already having a profound impact on American government. Candidates who do not support a particular industry's agenda report having been outspent several times over in recent elections. This corporate spending on candidates is quite important because of the strong influence purchased advertising media has on voter behaviors. The process of fair representative government is now up for sale to the highest bidder, corporate America. Without Campaign Finance Reform, following every election we can expect more and more members of Congress to be influenced or controlled by private industry. Change comes slowly, yet there is a need for immediate action. Campaign Finance Reform is the keystone of truly representative government. Without it more candidates controlled by industry rather than the community are elected each time voters go to the polls. This situation means that getting FCNL's currently high priorities through Congress will become increasingly difficult every year. Protect your Vote: Are you registered? Submitted by: Jennifer Wolff The deadline for voter registration is October 11. Election Day is November 8, 2011 DO CHECKLIST before Oct 11: 1. Check to make sure your name and address are current. 2. Change your name if it's different from the last time you voted. 3. Change your address if you've moved since the last time you voted.

7 Community Companion September, 2011 page 7 Protect your Vote: Are you registered?, continued Note: Ohio does not have online voter registration, nor can you change your name and address online. You must mail or hand-deliver the registration form. The form to change your name and address is the same as the one used to register to vote. URL for VOTER REGISTRATION (& Drop-off locations): 1. Get voter registration forms and drop-off locations here: < 2. Get more information to protect your vote at/ < 3. If you aren't sure if you've registered, you should CHECK NOW & change your voter registration, if needed. Check your voter registration to make sure you are registered. < check. INFORMATION RESOURCES FOR VOTING SMART: 1. Project Vote Smart - American Government, Elections, Candidates The League of Women Voters Hamilton County, OH: Smart Voter... (The November election is not posted yet, but when it is, you can put in your address and it will show you what your ballot will look like.) They won't tell you who to vote for, but they provide information that is fair to both sides. Corporations Are Dinosaurs, My Friends Submitted by: Rhonda Pfaltzgraff-Carlson "Corporations are people, my friend." (Mitt Romney, Iowa State Fair, August 11, 2011) Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the Lord said to me, "Now I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant." (Jeremiah 1:9-10) Like God spoke through Jeremiah, God speaks through us. And as God called Jeremiah to speak the truth to the Powers of his time, we need to speak the truth to the Powers of our time. I just didn't expect God to speak through me. On May 8, 2010, God told me that "Corporations are dinosaurs." My sense was that God desired their extinction. This revelation hit me like lightning. I was stunned.

8 Community Companion September, 2011 page 8 Corporations Are Dinosaurs, My Friends, continued By training, I am an Industrial-Organizational Psychologist. I pursued a Ph.D. in that field to learn how to make organizations more fair. But later, as a consultant working for a corporation and consulting with corporations, I felt powerless to achieve that end. I left my profession to be a stay-at-home mom. A couple of years ago, God called me to return to my vocation. I knew I would not make progress "relating the Powers to the One in and through and for whom they exist, and in whom all things hold together" (Colossians 1:16-17) without additional theological training, so I pursued and recently finished my Master's Degree in Theology at Xavier University. So, while I was in the business of transforming corporations, I never would have dreamed that our current form of economic organization was itself flawed. As God's words and the sense that came with them reached the logical aspects of my mind, I realized that the implications of the truth that I had just heard would mean devastation. But it did not cause me despair. This truth pointed to the beginning of sweeping changes, profound transformation that would recreate society into something we could not yet imagine. This revelation is not inconsistent with what we already know. In fact, the morning after my revelation, May 9, 2010, Senator Chris Dodd (D-Connecticut) the Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, appeared on CBS' "Face the Nation" saying that practices on Wall Street reveal that, "finance is getting detached from the real economy." While corporations have always used vast amounts of resources to feed their enormous appetites, our political leaders were admitting that corporate interests had become separated from the needs of the common person. Corporations were now operating almost completely for themselves rather than the needs of their stakeholders. Similarly, the use of the word "dinosaur" to represent corporations is not an altogether new metaphor. Wikipedia, citing the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, documents the word dinosaur as commonly "used to describe things that are impractically large, obsolete, or bound for extinction" and that the use of this metaphor has already been directed toward corporations. So why, like Jonah, have I resisted sharing this message? Because I was not yet fully certain that God would deliver me from the influence that corporations had over me. I was still under the sway of the demonic powers that pervade persons and society. Walter Wink, a respected biblical scholar, in his book Naming the Powers, says that Satan is "the actual power that congeals around collective idolatry, injustice or inhumanity, a power that increases or decreases according to the degree of collective refusal to choose higher values." Also in that book, he defines demons as "psychic or spiritual power emanated by organizations or individuals or sub aspects of individuals whose energies are bent on overpowering others." I had not yet been able to disentangle myself from these forces to "let my life speak." But I am no longer afraid of Satan, because I know God is more powerful. I know this partially because God has helped me to become disentangled from the demonic forces inside of me.

9 Community Companion September, 2011 page 9 Corporations Are Dinosaurs, My Friends, continued Wink, in his book Engaging the Powers, also defines Satan as "the world-encompassing spirit of the Domination System," the spiritual head of the network of systems which worship gods rather than God. In other words, Satan is the accumulation of the aspects of ourselves and our institutions which worship the gods of white supremacy, patriarchy, individualism, capitalism, colonialism, heterosexism, Euro centrism, ablebodyism, speciesism, and the like. In contrast to the God of Life and Love, those gods are like coal waste. More particularly, I resisted sharing this message, because I was concerned about success. I was afraid that I wouldn't get any corporate clients if I associated myself with the truth that I had heard. I was still worshiping the gods of security and prestige. But now I know that, in contrast to the personal fulfillment that comes from communing with the God of Justice and Passion, worshiping those gods is like swimming in an oil slick. While a future without corporations is currently inconceivable, the truth is that we can imagine our way into that future, and in that future life will be lived more abundantly. Corporations, while they mercilessly damage the earth, cannot feed or starve the power of Life which is Love. While corporations may dim our hopes for the future, they cannot stop the sun from rising in the morning. And while corporations will attempt to bottle the rain, they cannot keep it from falling. In fact, after corporations become extinct, rain will fall more peacefully. Also like Walter Wink, I believe that the Powers are good, fallen, and need to be redeemed. Economic systems are good. God created economic systems as a means for distributing goods and services. However, our economic systems have fallen into disarray. They have idolized themselves to the extent that they no longer serve humanity but serve themselves instead. The extent of poverty and injustice that they now perpetuate is no longer sustainable, even for them. These Powers have become so demonic that God has started the process of their redemption. The Church is called, as Wink says, "to practice a ministry of disclosing the spirituality of these Powers." We are called to remind the Powers that God created them to serve the common good. Anyone who chooses to participate in this task of redemption will likely be misunderstood, potentially ostracized, and perhaps even harmed by the people who stand to receive the most from this liberation. However, as Wink argues, "The greatness of Christianity lies in its being hated by the Domination System, not in its being convincing to it." While the immense nature of the change required to transform our economic systems may be unimaginable now, the end of that struggle, which we may not live to see, will also bring flourishing we cannot imagine. As before the meteors struck earth in the Cretaceous Period, God must have recently thought regarding corporations, "If they don't go, they will cause almost all life on earth to fail." While the devastation must have been enormous those millions of years ago, without that catastrophic event, mammals would not have developed into you and me. History tells us that some dinosaurs evolved into birds. We, and God, now feed them easily and provide places for them to drink, wash and play in our backyards. May the beauty of birds, their colors and songs, remind us of a future which has already begun.

10 Community Companion September, 2011 page 10 From FGC: FYI This fall, on five consecutive Tuesdays beginning October 11, PBS will air nationwide Women, War & Peace (WWP), a five-part investigation of the effects of war on women and the power of women to broker peace in areas in conflict. The series, produced by Abigail E. Disney, Pamela Hogan, and Gini Reticker, and featuring celebrity narrators Matt Damon, Geena Davis, Tilda Swinton, and Alfre Woodard, comprises five films about the experience of women in the war-torn countries of Afghanistan, Bosnia, Colombia, and Liberia, as well as an overview contextualizing the series as a whole. Faith surfaces repeatedly across the films, though in different guises, as a force that sometimes hinders but more often facilitates the peace building process. A perfect example of this is the award-winning documentary Pray the Devil Back to Hell, which will receive its U.S. broadcast premiere as the episode of WWP devoted to Liberia. Pray tells the story of Christian and Muslim women who, united in their desire for peace, crossed religious divides and, motivated by their respective faiths, brought an end to their country's bloody civil war and ushered the first female head of state on the continent of Africa into the Liberian presidency. More information about this groundbreaking and important set of documentary films can be found on the WWP website, accessible at FWCC Salt & Light Event in Cincinnati Tuesday, October 25 Community Friends Meeting Pot Luck Dinner: 5:30 pm Program 7:00 pm A Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) program provides time for worship in the manner of Friends, small group sessions, and time for fellowship within the framework of FWCC's mission to bring Friends of varying traditions and cultural experiences together in worship, communications and consultation, to express our common heritage and our Quaker message to the world. Info on the leaders: Valerie Joy is the Executive Secretary of FWCC's Asia-West Pacific Section. Her international experience of Quakers worldwide has shaped her service to God. Valerie will share some of the special aspects of the lives, projects, difficulties and triumphs, in the context of 'Being Salt and Light," of Friends in Asia and the West Pacific. Abel Sibonio, Friends pastor originally from Burundi, will talk about the broken world of life in refugee camps in Tanzania. He will share why he and his family migrated to Australia and how his Quaker experience has carried him through the difficulties of becoming established in a new country. He plays an important role counseling and advising many Burundian refugees in different countries around the world