QUAKER NEWSLETTER. Fifth Month, 2015

Transcription

1 QUAKER NEWSLETTER GAINESVILLE MONTHLY MEETING OF THE RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS 702 NW 38th Street, Gainesville, FL 32607; (352) Sandy Lyon, clerk Nature paints for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty. John Ruskin Hold in the Light: Hap Taylor, Anne and Phil Haisley, Connie and Tim Ray, Arnold and Amy Von der Porten. Calendar of Events: (online at Every Sunday: 11:00 am Meeting for Worship; 11:15 am First Day School Every Monday: 5:30 pm Yoga with Gary Sunday, May 1 9:30 am Library committee 9:30 am Meetinghouse committee 9:30 am Peace and Social Concerns Committee Tuesday, May 3 11:30 am Friendly Lunch - at the Meeting House Sunday, May 8 11:00 am New Garden Friends School children will join us for worship and lunch 1:15 pm Meeting for Worship for Business Sunday, May 15 1:00 pm Earthcare Committee: Film: FLOW (details below) Wednesday, May 18 Deadline for newsletter items. to Bonnie Zimmer at gfquakernews@gmail.com Sunday, May 22 1:00 pm Bible Study The Fundraising Committee is responsible for organizing set-up and clean-up of food after Meeting for Worship. The list for committees responsible for set-up and clean-up is located on the bulletin board in the social room. Sunday, May 8 Students from New Garden Friends School will be joining us for worship and for lunch. We plan to make sandwiches and cookies for the 40 children and 10 adults, in addition to serving fruit and a beverage. Mona Morris is coordinating the arrangements and will need assistance with preparing sandwiches and baking many cookies to fill bottomless bellies. Saturday, May 14 Earth Care is putting together a display regarding invasive plants for us to use in tabling at the Museum of Natural History's Wicked Plants Day. This will be our first venture into using our collective experiences in science and mathematics education as a part of an outreach activity to young families..

2 Gainesville Friends Meeting Page 2 Sunday, May 15: 1:00 pm: FLOW: For Love of Water This award-winning documentary investigates what experts label the most important political and environmental issue of the 21st Century: the world water crisis. Building a case against the growing privatization of the world's dwindling fresh water supply, the director Irena Salina focuses on politics, pollution, human rights, and the emergence of a domineering world water cartel. FLOW launched a Right To Water campaign to add a 31 st article to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ARTICLE 31: Everyone has the right to clean and accessible water, adequate for the health and well-being of the individual and family, and no one shall be deprived of such access or quality of water due to individual economic circumstance. Monday, May 16 Grow Gainesville will begin to share our space in the social room from 6:00 pm to 9:00 on the 3 rd Monday for a potluck dinner and meeting. This use of the Meetinghouse is sponsored by the EarthCare Committee. Grow Gainesville is a community group that supports efforts to grow local foods and homesteading. They encourage communal aspects of homesteading skills, sharing work while promoting self-sufficiency and sustainability. Members of the community joined us for the Local Foods Market Dinner in late April. Quaker Organizations Supported By Gainesville Quaker Meeting This is part of an ongoing series highlighting various Quaker organizations supported by the Meeting. Friends are reminded that the Meeting gives a token amount to each, leaving it up to individual Friends to give to organizations as they are led. Quaker United Nations Office The United Nations Office carries forward the Quaker traditions of patient, quiet diplomacy, working for a more peaceful and just world. The strength of QUNO s work lies in our long term persistence. Through perseverance, we have helped to change attitudes, create new understandings, and develop new standards. QUNO staff work with people in the UN, multilateral organizations, government delegations, and non-governmental organizations, to achieve changes in international standards and practice. Quakers are known for speaking out against injustice and war - issues that are incompatible with our vision of a world in which peace and justice prevail. Our work is rooted in the Quaker testimonies of peace, truth, justice, equality, and simplicity. We understand peace as more than the absence of war and violence, recognizing the need to look for what seeds of war there may be in all our social, political, and economic relationships. Current areas of work include climate change, conflict prevention, human rights and refugees, peace and disarmament, and food and sustainability. More information, including how to donate, may be found on their website: New from QuakerBooks A Little Book of Unknowing by Jennifer Kavanagh This very slim book s title is about mysticism, as is The Cloud of Unknowing, the famous anonymous work it references. Unknowing is not doubt, ignorance, isolation, or lack of connection. It is a way known to mystics, including the Desert Fathers and Mothers; it is what William Penn claimed would make us all brethren when the liveries of this world fall away. If you are attracted to a sense of aligning your life and spirit with something you will not be able to define; if, indeed, you are excited by the inability to define it and yet feel power in its kinship, this book will be helpful and delightful. Each chapter ends with two queries (Kavanagh is a Friend) of only six or eight words each, and the book ends with a list of suggested titles for

3 Gainesville Friends Meeting Page 3 further reading. Individuals or groups can read and reflect on this book s exploration of how to invite unknowing into our lives, and thus enter into a richness we can enter only when we can let go. A Walk in the Quaker Woods Jean Larson, with photographs by Bill Mitchell April 22-24, 2016 On Friday, April 22, I dashed home early to join Bill for a ride out to the spring Native Plant sale at Morningside Nature Center. In past years we drove there separately because I had class just before the sale started. It was much easier this year, not having to search for each other. We parked quite close to the pick up place, walked to the displays furthest away, and selected plants from a variety of vendors, including Claudia Larsen, who has talked to us about wildflower gardening, and Jim Notestein, who talked about peace poles and peace gardens. We drove immediately to the meetinghouse, where I weeded around the peace pole and planted five brown-eyed susans (Rudbeckia mollis), which are also known as softhair coneflowers, to refurbish the cluster that had attracted many pollinators the previous summers. Meanwhile, Bill planted five mistflowers (Conoclinium coelestinum) in the garden under the palms near the bike rack. On Saturday afternoon, Bill planted three tubs of eastern gamma grass (Tripsacum dactyloides), also known as Fakahatchee grass to help stabilize the slope near the driveway of the back retention basin. He also planted an aquatic milkweed (Asclepias perennis) near the place where the ditch meets the creek and a red mulberry (Morus rubra) by the ditch near Shir Shalom. On Saturday, early in the evening, I weeded Above, spurred toadflax (Linaria maroccana). At right, goldenmane tickseed (Coreopsis basalis). more around the peace pole and planted five Georgia calamints (Calamintha georgiana) to refurbish the cluster that had attracted many pollinators in previous summers. On Sunday morning, I came in early to water the plants near the meetinghouse, and to pullout Pennsylvania everlasting, also known as Pennsylvania cud-weed (Gamochaeta pensylvanica), a unattractive, non-native plant which was putting out lots of seed and hiding some of the newly emerging flowers we scattered last fall. I spotted a caterpillar on one of the plants, and it turns

4 Gainesville Friends Meeting Page 4 out that Pennsylvania everlasting is a larval host plant for American Painted Lady (Vanessa virginiensis) butterflies, and the caterpillar was a larval American Painted Lady. Several goldenmane tickseed plants (Coreopsis basalis) were flowering, showing a red ring at the base of the yellow rays. Some blanket flowers are emerging but not yet flowering. There is a plant I am having difficulty identifying that is quite lovely. The flower is like a snapdragon, where one must open the mouth to see the stamens, which puffed their pollen onto my fingers. The best fit I could find is spurred snapdragon/toadflax (Linaria maroccana), a native of Morocco. It is not listed as growing wild in Florida, but could have escaped from a garden. On Sunday, after meeting, Bill and I planted another aquatic milkweed, two meadow spikemoses (Selaginella apoda), and two lizard s tails (Saururus cernuus) in a ring in the back retention pond where we hope that the soil will stay reliably damp. American painted lady (Vanessa virginiensis) caterpillar on Cudweed. I read that the spines don t sting; I didn't test it. We took time out over a beautiful spring weekend to enjoy the outdoors and invest in its health through a combination of removal, replacement and enhancement. Do you invest in the health of your spiritual life through joining with others in meeting for worship, letting go of habits of thought that detract, reaching out to friends near and far, and renewing and refreshing your spiritual practices? Epistle from SEYM Annual Gathering: Planting in the back retention basin. Loving Greetings to Friends Everywhere: Southeastern Yearly Meeting gathered in Fruitland Park, Florida, in Third Month 23-27, 2016 with 133 Friends in attendance, including 17 children. The joyous comments about the beauty of our setting by visitors from Quaker organizations, reminded us to appreciate how fortunate we are to meet at The Life Enrichment Center on Lake Griffin. We are ever mindful of the benefit offered us by nature as we worship beneath the ancient live oaks and listen to the ministry of birdsong. Peace-builder Bridget Moix delivered the Walton Lecture on our theme Active Peace: Friends Ministry of Hope in a Despairing World in which she shared a framework of understanding to guide us in our peacemaking efforts. In her workshops, YM Friends heard stories of peacemakers from around the world and were led through a series of small group discussions exploring our stories and where we sought the spiritual nurture needed to be peacemakers. Sharing from her extensive life experience as a peacebuilder, Bridget gave us valuable insight into the wealth of peacemaking efforts around the world as well as concrete resources to support our work and witness for peace. Friends expressed gratitude for the quotes and queries, which gave rise to spirit, led reflection in our worship sharing groups. We delved deeply in personal consideration of the theme Active Peace, seeking to recenter and renew ourselves to be strong in meeting the challenges ahead, and to be open to act upon the leading of spirit. We are also grateful to the many Friends

5 Gainesville Friends Meeting Page 5 who shared their gifts and leadings through a wide variety of informative and inspiring workshops. Our youth are continuing their climate change work and witness with focus on water issues. They brought forward strategies in which both individual Friends and Monthly Meetings can participate in addressing this concern. Part of this work includes creatively raising donations to support the Field Secretary for Earthcare. Friends were excited to receive a report from the Field Secretary for Earthcare Search Committee. Having developed a job description and an ad, SEYM is moving forward to fill the position. Friends look forward to fulfilling our commitment to act on climate change. The Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) report was another highlight of our gathering. Hearing the epistle of 320 Friends from around the world, who gathered in Peru, while seeing their faces, was a touching opportunity to connect with our brothers and sisters from around the world. SEYM Friends mirrored this connection among Friends through our active participation in conversation, study, worship and intergenerational dance and play. SEYM Friends feel renewed in our call to be faithful and look forward to using what we have shared and learned in seeking to fulfill our call to be active peacemakers. In the Light, Joel Cook, SEYM Assistant Clerk, Presiding Opportunity for Service Some of you may remember Cassie Catania, who was a caretaker for Joan Andrews and often accompanied her to Meeting for Worship. Cassie is now working on a Parkinson's disease study at the Neuropsychology Laboratory at the University of Florida. They are seeking volunteers with and without Parkinson's disease for a two year study. If you think you might be interested, contact Cassie at

6 Gainesville Friends Meeting Page 6 Queries for the Fifth Month: Do we share our deepest beliefs and values with each other and with our children, while leaving them free to develop as the Spirit may lead them? Does the meeting give the children loving care and promote their spiritual life through religious education and other activities? Do we encourage our children s participation in the meeting s work and cultivate their desire for service to others? How do we educate our members and attenders about the Bible (especially the teachings of Jesus), other spiritual literature, and the history, principles, and practices of Friends? Advices for the Fifth Month: Seek for ourselves and for our children the full development of God s gifts, which is true education. Realize that education should continue throughout life and that all should share its opportunities and privileges. Make time for regular personal prayer and worship and for reading the Bible, Friends literature, Faith and Practice, the queries and advices, and other sources of spiritual value. Seek truth together in our families and among Friends in shared worship and discussion. Teach by being teachable. Be open to new ideas and approaches. Reach out to that of God in everyone, and endeavor to live out the testimonies of Friends in all the expected and unexpected circumstances of daily life. Gainesville Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends 702 NW 38th Street Gainesville, FL 32607