QUAKERNEWSLETTER
GAINESVILLEMONTHLYMEETINGOFTHERELIGIOUSSOCIETYOFFRIENDS
702NW38th Street,Gainesville,FL32607;(352)372-1070
AnnieMcPherson,clerk
HoldintheLight:HapTaylor, Anne and Phil Haisley, Gene Beardsley.
CalendarofEvents: (onlineat
EverySunday:11:00amMeetingforWorship;11:15amFirstDay School
Every Monday: 6 pm YogawithGary
Sunday, July 6
9:30 am Library committee
9:30 am Meetinghouse committee
Tuesday, July 8
11:30 am Friendly Lunch - at the Meeting House
Sunday, July 13
12:45 pm Meeting for Worship for Business CANCELLED
Friday, July 18
7:00 pm Film Night at the Meetinghouse. TBA
Sunday, July 20
1:00 pm Peace and Social Concerns committee followed by Earthcare Witness Committee
Wednesday, July 23
Deadline for newsletter items. Email to Bonnie Zimmer at
Sunday, July 27
1:00 pm Bible Study
The Ministry and Nurture 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.
New Member
Gainesville Friends Meeting joyfully welcomes Tim Fogarty into membership.
Update on Gene Beardsley
As most of you know Gene fell after Meeting for Worship a few weeks ago and fractured her shoulder. She spent some time at Shands and then some time at Palm Garden for rehab and PT. By the time you read this, she should be home. According to her daughter, Shanna, they really enjoy the frozen meals at Trader Joe's! If you are ever in the Archer Road neighborhood think about picking up one or two that they could stick in the freezer (no red meat, please, stir-fry types are a favorite!).
Update on Sybil Brennen
Sybil's reports that her transplant was a success. She will be in New York until June 29, when she will join Bud on Nantucket. She will need to return to New York monthly for at least the rest of the summer. They hope to return to Florida in the fall. In the meantime, you can contact them using their daughters' addresses: Kasara Gage, 74 Saddle Trail Dr., Dover, NH 03820-6120 or Elfriede Walden, 243 Jennie Lane, Eliot, ME 03903.
Friday, July 18: Film Night 7:00 pm
The film for July has not yet been determined. If you have DVDs that might be of interest, see Tim Ray.
From Peace and Social Concerns
Learning how to be a Peaceful Activist
Posted by Chad R. MacDonald on Tuesday, June 17, 2014
In the ongoing battle on how to solve gun violence, I learned further aggression isn't the answer.
When the photographers surrounded me, I knew I’d made a mistake. I looked back at the disheveled man I’d approached in order toconfront him, only to see himhaul backa stack of newspapers, ready to hit me with them. My debut as a peaceful activist wasn’t going well.
To backtrack a little, I’d decided to attend a rally against gun violence. A march across the Brooklyn Bridge was planned on the 18-month anniversary of the Sandy Hook shooting. It was headed by “Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America,” who had teamed up with “Mayors Against Illegal Guns” and “Everytown for Gun Safety.”
For more go to:
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Coming Up – August 29 – 31 (Friday Evening to Sunday Noon, just before Labor Day)
8th Family Peace Camp for all ages at Camp Ithiel -- near Orlando
THEME: "Living in the Magic Kin-dom" with RESOURCE LEADER: David Radcliff from New Community Project. David has 11 years of ministry. More Detailsand Registration Forms Later.
If you have questions now, contact -- Phil Lersch phone: (727) 544-2911
Sandy Lyon attended this last year.
Coming Up – If You Are Interested Act Soon
"What Every Member of the Meeting Should Know About Clerking and Quaker Decision-making"
Saturday, Sept. 27, 2014 from 9:00am to 4:30pm, at the Miami Friends Meetinghouse. A light breakfast & lunch will be provided.
This workshop should have wide appeal to both members and attenders, new and old. Arthur Larrabee has served his Monthly Meeting and Yearly Meeting in a multitude of roles, including Clerk of Yearly Meeting and Clerk of Interim Meeting. He is highly regarded by Friends all over the country as a consultant and talented teacher on Quaker decision-making and clerking, and has led many workshops on Clerking, including several at Pendle Hill and FGC.
Registration is required. The workshop can accommodate up to forty participants. A donation of $50 is suggested to help cover the cost of the event; some of the monthly meetings (including Miami) are making scholarships available to ensure that all who are interested can take advantage of this opportunity. Hospitality can be arranged. Please contact Andrea Hoskins, Clerk, Miami Friends Meeting: 305 609-9704.
Summer Reading – Two suggestions for summer reading:
Amish Grace by Donald B. Kraybill, Steven M. Nolt and David L. Weaver-Zercher. This book tells the story of the killing of Amish schoolgirls in Nickel Mines, PA, by a man who invaded the Amish schoolhouse and the response of the Amish community. It was written by three non-Amish scholars who are experts in Amish traditions, thought, and philosophy. It examines the Amish way of forgiveness and how that differs from and is similar to, the mainstream Christian ideas of forgiveness. It will challenge you to examine where and how your ideas about forgiveness have developed. Available from Amazon in paperback and Kindle. Also available from Alachua County Library.
Sugar by Elizabeth Abbott. Much like oil today, sugar was once the most powerful commodity on earth. It shaped world affairs, influencing the economic policies of nations, driving international trade and wreaking environmental havoc. The Western world's addiction to sugar came at a terrible human cost: the near extinction of the New World indigenous peoples gave rise to a new form of slavery, as millions of captured Africans were crammed into ships to make the dangerous voyage to Caribbean cane plantations. What began as the extraordinarily expensive luxury of nobles and the very wealthy has become a staple in the modern world. Indeed, it played its own role in creating that world, fuelling the workers of the Industrial Revolution, and giving rise to the craze for fast food. "Sugar: A Bittersweet History" tells the extraordinary, dramatic and thought-provoking story of this most commonplace of products from its very origins to the present day. Available from Amazon in paperback and Kindle. Also available from Alachua County Library.
On Worship
Direct communion with God is a wholeness that transcends mere communication, and it constitutes the essential life of the meeting for worship. Into its living stillness may come leadings and fresh insights that are purely personal, not meant to be shared. At other times they are meant for the meeting at large to hear. It is incumbent on the Friend receiving the message to make the sometimes difficult discernment whether the message is meant for the meeting as a whole or for the individual.
When a leading is to be shared, the worshiper feels a compelling inward call to vocal ministry. The very name “Quaker” is by tradition derived from the evident quaking of early Friends witnessing under the power of the Spirit. Ministry today may sometimes be accompanied by such outward signs, and many feel the inward quaking. Vocal ministry may take many forms, such as prayer, praise of God, song, teaching, witnessing, and sharing. These messages may center upon a single, vital theme; often apparently unrelated leadings are later discovered to have an underlying unity. Such ministry and prayer may answer the unrecognized or unvoiced needs of other seekers.
When someone accepts the call of the Spirit to speak, fellow worshipers are likewise called to listen with openness of minds and hearts. Reticent and tender spirits should feel the meeting community’s loving encouragement to give voice, even if haltingly, to the message that may be struggling to be born within them. Friends whose thought has been long developing and whose learning and experience are profound serve the meeting best when they, like all others, wait patiently for the prompting of the Inward Teacher. Anyone moved to speak should first allow others time to absorb and respond inwardly to what has already been said.
Friends should not put obstacles, including their own feelings of unworthiness, in the way of the call to speak. Deciding in advance to speak or not, or feeling a duty to speak to provide some balance between silence and the spoken word, interferes with the guidance of the Spirit. Even if not a word is spoken, a meeting for worship can be profoundly nurturing.
All present should be mindful that spiritual opportunities entail responsibilities as well, including attention to the time of assembling and consideration for those already settled. Speaking carried on in a spirit of debate, lecturing, discussion, or news reporting is destructive to the life of the meeting for worship and of the meeting community. Friends’ experience has shown that it is not helpful to answer or rebut what has been said previously during meeting for worship. Also, any who habitually settle into silent reading or sit in inattentive idleness cut themselves off from their fellow worshipers and from the Spirit. If hindrances to worship occur within a meeting for worship, members of the worship and ministry committee or others as appropriate should move quickly and in love to provide counsel.
Friends moved to vigorous support of causes need to voice their insights outside of meeting for worship in brief and sensitive ways. Similar sensitivity should be practiced by those who bring material to be posted or shared with the meeting community.
Source: SEYM Faith and Practice 2014
New from QuakerBooks
Angels Of Progress: A Documentary History Of The Progressive Friends 1822-1940
COMPILED EDITED, AND INTRODUCED BY CHUCK FAGER
The Progressive Quakers, though long forgotten by historians, were the radical seed of activist American religion in much of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They included pioneer crusaders for abolition and women's rights. They denounced authoritarianism in churches and many traditional dogmas as well. They championed the application of reason to doctrine, the Bible and theology; yet they were also welcoming to the burgeoning spiritualist movement.
A second volume has just become available.
Queries for the Seventh Month:
Do we attend meeting for worship regularly and punctually? ■Do we participate in meeting for worship with a concern for business and support it financially and with personal service according to our resources and abilities? ■Are we conscientious in fulfilling all obligations of state and society that are not contrary to our religious convictions? ■Are we punctual in keeping promises, just in payment of debts, and honorable in all our dealings? ■Do we choose recreations that strengthen our physical, mental, and spiritual life, avoiding those that may hinder others, our Earth, and ourselves? ■Do we act responsibly concerning substances and behaviors that can become addictive?
Advices for the Seventh Month
Take heed, dear Friends, to the promptings of love and truth in our hearts, which are the leadings of God. ■Bring the whole of our life under the healing and ordering of the Holy Spirit, remembering that there is no time but this present. ■When tempted to do wrong or to despair, call upon God with an open heart, confessing our weaknesses and our needs. ■Be mindful at all times of our connection with the Divine and others–avoid substances, behaviors, and activities which diminish this connection. ■Be aware of the ill effects of mind-altering or habit-forming drugs, intoxicants, gambling, and other detrimental practices. ■Choose recreations that increase our vitality, self- awareness, and peace of mind and strengthen our will to create what is good. ■Make thoughtful use of our time. ■Guard ourselves and our children in our choice of print, electronic media, and other entertainments. Avoid those that promote violence and disrespect for human beings. ■Friends, strive to be courteous and responsible while driving.
GainesvilleMonthlyMeeting oftheReligiousSocietyofFriends
702NW38thStreet
Gainesville,FL32607