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October 02 QuakerShaker
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Editor, QuakerShaker
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Oct 17, 2002 08:01 PDT
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QUAKERSHAKER, October, 2002Newsletter of the Yellow Springs Religious
Society of Friends
Jeremiah 4: 19 & 20: My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart;
my heart
maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O
my soul,
the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. Destruction upon destruction
is
cried; for the whole land is spoiled.
1. October Calendar
2. Tenth Month Query
3. Stop the war!
4. Welcome our new member
5. Newsnotes
Elinor Preis has died
Julie (Morgan) Foley and Joyce (Morgan) Caldwell are recovering from
accidents
Hazel Tulecke is recovering from surgery
6. Virtuous Reality at Meeting for Worship
7. Report from Susan Hyde on this year’s Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting
8. Minutes of the Business Meeting of September 8, 2002
Quakershaker deadline for November is October 18. Give information to
Bill
Houston (email: htul-@antioch-college.edu) or Irwin Abrams, or email
to
Quake-@aol.com
************
1. Calendar
********
Always: Sundays: 8:30 a.m., Meeting for Worship, at Rockford
10:00 a.m. First Day School (Sept-May),
at Rockford
11:00 a.m. Meeting for Worship, at
Rockford
Wednesdays: 7:00 a.m. Meeting for Worship, at Rockford
Saturdays: 4:30 - 5:30 pm Peace Vigil, SW corner of
Limestone St. & Xenia Ave.
Sunday, October 6, 12 noon: Potluck lunch at Rockford before Business
Meeting
Sunday, October 20: After 11 o’clock meeting for worship, a welcome
party for
our new member Kathy Hale, including a potluck meal. All at Rockford.
************
2. Query for tenth month
********
Do you endeavor to live in harmony with nature, avoiding pollution and
the destruction of our environment? What are you doing about your use of
the world’s irreplaceable resources?Are you concerned for family and
population planning so that future generations will be able to live on
the resources available to them?
************
3. Wars and rumors of war
********
Congress may be voting within a few days on a resolution authorizing the
president to invade Iraq. Indeed the resolution being proposed by the
White House is quite open-ended. After a string of Whereas’s
(some of questionable accuracy or relevance), the concluding section
reads:
Section 2. Authorization for use of United States Armed Forces.
The president is authorized to use all means that he determines to be
appropriate, including force, in order to enforce the United Nations
Security Council
resolutions referenced above, defend the national security interests of
the United
States against the threat posed by Iraq, and restore international peace
and security in
the region.
Mary Letson shares with us this letter written September 18 to Tom
Daschle by Ed
Snyder; Ed is the retired executive secretary of the Friends Committee
on
National Legislation; Daschle is majority leader of the US Senate:
Dear Tom:
Please, please give us leadership against the Bush administration policy
of
preemptive war to change the government of Iraq. It is hard to believe
you could
be supporting such a momentous change in U.S. foreign policy.
Here’s the way it looks to me:
The United States is clearly number one in military, political, and
economic
power in the world. We now appear to be suggesting that we’ll go it
alone if the
world doesn’t want to do it our way. Our national pride seems to be
spilling over
into arrogance and hubris. At times we appear to be asserting a role of
Biblical
proportions -- we are the righteous, they are evil.
Now, the Bush administration seems to be deserting the difficult and
massive
restoration task in Afghanistan to do what it knows best -- wage another
war,
this time against Iraq. How many more terrorists will this spawn? I fear
we are
creating a situation where U.S. citizens will be consumed by perpetual
fear of
suicide bombers and barbarians at the gate.
We desperately need leadership that will use America’s unchallenged
power to
change the script, to break from the past, to reject violence, to build
up
international institutions of law and order, of economic and political
justice
and environmental protection. Positive U.S. leadership could catalyze
people of
good will all over the world to effective action.
If we use our country’s immense power in this way, the lives of our
children and
grandchildren -- and their contemporaries all over the world -- can be
liberated
from the terror and hatred our present generation is enduring.
You have an unparalleled opportunity to lead toward that goal. Don’t
blow it.
Blessings on you,
Ed Snyder, FCNL Executive Secretary Emeritus
If you want to call your Congressfolks, here are their Washington phone
numbers:
Senator Mike DeWine (202) 224-2315
Senator George Voinovich (202) 224-3353
Representative David Hobson (202) 225-4324
4. Welcoming Party for Kathy Hale: Kathy has been participating in the
meeting
so regularly that it may not seem like she’s a newcomer, but she has
just
formally joined the meeting, and we’ll celebrate that with a potluck
lunch after
the 11 o’clock meeting for worship on October 20. Even if it’s not
convenient
for you to bring something, come anyhow -- there’s always plenty -- and
say hi
to Kathy.
********
5. Newsnotes
********
Former member of our meeting Elinor Preis died September 16 in
San Diego. She was the loving and loved mother of Mike and Pat Preis and
a very
good friend to many older members of our meeting. She was the ex-wife of
Bill
Preis. If you want to write Mike or Pat they are at:
Mike Preis Pat Preis
PO Box 304 PO Box 789
Greenvale, NY 11548 Girwood, Alaska 99587
Ross and Mary Morgan’s daughter Julie Foley and their foster daughter
Joyce
Caldwell are recovering from accidents. Julie fell in the Springfield
office
where she works and broke both elbows. She’s not now in much pain, and
is in good
spirits, but of course can’t do anything with her hands. Joyce’s leg was
crushed
in an auto accident; her home is in Shaker Heights, but she’s staying
with a
sister in Xenia. It may be a year before she walks.
Hazel Tulecke is at home recovering from back surgery that she hopes
will make
her legs work right. Her daughters Kari, Heidi and Kim (and their
children) are
giving her a lot of help. She can take short walks with a walker; she
can have
visitors and receive phone calls. The doctor says the recovery period
may be as
long as 3 months, but she hopes to shorten that.
************
6. A note from Irwin Abrams, The Word on the Wall at Rockford:
********
Of the four words above the hearth at Rockford, originally presented to
Antioch College as a
chapel by Lucy Morgan, the Quaker wife of President Arthur E. Morgan,
the word
virtue has the most interesting origins. As a recent article in the New
York
Times Magazine (11 August) explains, vir, the Latin word for “man” (as
in
virile), comes from an ancient Indo-European source. In the Renaissance,
virtus,
the word for virtue, meant excellence and power. Virtual and virtuous
meant
having manly qualities, such as strength or heroism. An expert fencer
was said to
be virtuous, which also meant skillful.
It was only later that virtuous came to mean highly moral, as it does
at
Rockford, although the earlier meaning of skillful persists in virtuoso.
Virtual,
however, took a different path, since the 17th century coming to mean
existing in
effect rather than in reality. Virtual is defined by the dictionary as
“being
such practically or in effect, although not in actual fact or name.”
Something
can be a virtual impossibility, as in “virtually everyone knows
Shakespeare.” Or
“although he lived near me, he is virtually a stranger.”
In the last half century computer scientists have found virtual a
handy word
to mean something simulated by the computer, which gives it the
appearance of
something which is really different. The text we read on the screen is
actually
a lot of numbers. In computer usage virtual means something existing in
the
electronic world, not what we think of as the real world.
The Nobel Foundation in Stockholm has been celebrating the century of
the
Nobel prizes by establishing both an actual Nobel museum, currently in
temporary
facilities, and an online museum,each with a separate director and
staff. The
director of the actual Nobel Museum brought me to Stockholm to consult
about the
peace prize segment. While there I met the director of the virtual
online Nobel
Museum, whose staff had already secured permission from me by internet
to post on
its web site my article about the women winners of the Nobel peace
prize.
As I look on the word virtue on the Rockford wall, I wonder to what
extent in
these matters I have been virtually virtuous and to what extent I have
been
virtuously virtual.
************
7. OHIO VALLEY YEARLY MEETING 181ST SESSION
********
Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting was held at Earlham College, Richmond,
Indiana, on July 31 - August 5, 2002. The theme was "Healing the
World." There
were worship sharing groups, workshops, and evening sessions exploring
this
theme. The children, middle youth and teens also had activities and
discussions
about the theme.
Camilla Flinterman shared her Living Witness.
Attendance for OVYM was down slightly from last year. We had 173
people
in attendance. There were 11 Young Adult Quakers, 13 Teens, 9 Middle
Youth, and
15 Children. This was the first time Young Adult Quakers had attended
with their
expenses being paid by the Yearly Meeting for three days. They had a
good time
and want to keep coming back. The Advancement and Nurture Committee
will work
with Rachel Cayard-Roberts from YAQ (Young Adult Quakers) to put
together a
written proposal to go to the Executive Committee and the Budget
Committee for
next Yearly Meeting.
The following items are information to be passed on to Monthly
Meetings
from OVYM Business sessions:
1) Whitewater Quarterly Meeting will meet regularly on the third
Saturday of
October, January, and April.
2) Joint Quarterly Meeting will be at Happy Hollow Camp near
Indianapolis,
Indiana, October 19-20, 2002.
3) A proposal was made to charge half of the attendance cost for
children of
hired staff. This will be presented to Clerks of the different
committees. Their
responses will be sent to the Executive Committee for a decision.
4) A proposal to create an OVYM Peace and Social Concerns Committee
was
approved. The committee started working on agenda items while Yearly
Meeting was
in session.
5) The Sustainability Minute on page 44 of the Advanced Reports was
approved.
The OVYM Clerk will send a copy to each elected official and send copies
out with
the Epistles.
6) The new officers of the Teen Group are as follows:
James Hyde--Clerk
Chance Duvall--Recording Clerk
Carrie Reynolds and Jesse Garrison--members at large.
7) Susan Lee Barton is now the Midwest Regional Staff person for FWCC.
She
invites meetings to call on her to lead talks, workshops or act in any
other way
as a resource.
8) It was recommended that all monthly meetings acquire a copy of the
2002
Section of the America's directory.
9) Friends Committee on Unity with Nature (FCUN) recommends that
Friends read
the 2001 pamphlet Spirituality and Sustainability and the leaflet
Greenfire and
the Eco-Village.
10) Two representatives were approved to attend the FWCC Peace
Conference at
Guilford College in Greensboro, N.C. January 17-20, 2003: Byron Branson
and Jack
Davis. Interested young people were Eliza Rogers, Kelsy McDonald and
Morris
Cornell-Morgan
11) The approved representatives to FWCC Triennial at Kings College,
Auckland,
New Zealand, on January 16-25, 2004 are Lou Bucklin and Cindy Goslee.
12) The approved representatives to attend Friends General Conference
on Racism
at the Gilmary Diocesan Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, January
16-20, 2003
are James Taylor and Paul Kriese.
13) Quaker Heights Nursing Home in Waynesville will finish a 30-bed
Assisted
Living unit in 2003. It will be called Quaker Heights Care Community.
Quaker
Heights is the second largest employer in Waynesville, Ohio.
14) Lauramoore Friends Home approved Board Members: Ruth Kutter,
Christine
Nickelson, Larry Habschmidt, Ron and Jane Haldeman, and Jack Davis.
15) The Braddock Trustees approved increasing the number of board
members from
three to four.
16) David and Virginia Wood are continuing to travel under the care of
OVYM and
asked for an updated minute. It was approved. The Clerk will write the
minute.
17) Barbarie Hill will put a calendar on the OVYM website. If you have
upcoming events or meetings for youth or adults, please send them to
her.
18) The next Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting will be July 30 - August 3,
2003, at
Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana.
19) A Peace Tax Fund was given to each monthly meeting to be used and
shared.
Steve Olshevsky helped put together this packet.
Monthly Meetings are to take action on the following items:
1) There are topics on Environment, Sustainability, and Close
Relationships
to be discussed and suggestions written and sent to the Discipline
Revision
Committee before the end of the year 2002.
2) Monthly Meetings are asked to discuss the Health Care Minute on
pages
47 and 48 of the Advance Reports. Send written responses to Marie
Klaphaak.
3) The Health Care Survey needs to be filled out by monthly meetings
and
returned to Maie Klaphaak.
4) Do we want a Yearly Meeting Clerical Support Person? Read, discuss
and
bring a decision to Joint Quarterly Meeting in October.
5) Middle Youth Committee wants the names, birth dates, addresses and
e-mail
addresses for all 11-14 year olds in each meeting.
6) All meetings are asked to write a history of their monthly meeting.
Make interviews of members and attenders who know histories and stories
about
their Monthly Meetings and Yearly Meetings and send the written reports
to
Executive Committee.
This report was submitted by Susan Hyde.
********
8. Monthly Meeting for Business September 8, 2002
********
Yellow Springs Friends met for business at the meetinghouse September
8, 2002.
Present were Diane Chiddister, Ken Champney, Eva Paige, Barry Hollister,
Dick
Eastman, Hazel Tulecke, Bill Houston, Dale Blanchard, Bruce Heckman,
James Hyde,
John Eastman, David Hyde, Jean Putnam, Jane Morgan, Harold Putnam,
Susan Hyde,
Paul Wagner, Betty Wagner, Cindy Butler-Jones, Kay Hollister, Irwin
Abrams, Carol
Simmons, Faith Morgan, and Deb Kociszewski.
The meeting opened in silent worship which included prayerful
consideration of
the ninth query on Meeting for Business.
1. Minutes. The recording clerk read the minutes from the July 14
meeting for
business. A minor correction was approved.
2. Community Day. Carol Simmons reported for the Religious Education
Committee that Community Day will be held September 15, 2002 from 8:30
AM to
2:00 PM at the meetinghouse. The program will include intergenerational
activities, worship, potluck and games.
3. Membership Transfer. The clerk read a letter from Bob Powell
requesting
transfer of his membership to Campus Monthly Meeting in Wilmington,
Ohio.
Friends approved the clerk's writing a letter to Bob expressing the
meeting's
best wishes in this transfer, and to Campus Meeting approving the
transfer of
membership.
4. Marriage Request. John Eastman reported that he and Terri Brown
request
marriage under the care of the meeting. Friends approved forwarding the
request
to Membership and Pastoral Care for the naming of a clearness committee.
5. Budget Report. Reporting for the Finance Committee, Ken Champney
presented a proposed budget and a suggestion regarding the budget needs
of the
Spiritual Enrichment Fund. A copy of the proposed budget is attached to
the
minutes. The proposed budget indicates that income met expectations,
interest
income did not. The treasurer's suggestion regarding the Spiritual
Enrichment
Fund will be forwarded to Membership and Pastoral Care for consideration
of an
effective fund amount. Friends also considered adding to the budget the
purchase
of a lap top computer to be used by the recording clerk and by the
QuakerShaker
editor and a fireproof cabinet for the meeting Archives. Both possible
additions
to the budget will be researched further. Approval of the proposed
budget will
be on the October business meeting agenda.
6. Ad Hoc Committee on Sexuality. Dick Eastman reported that
September 29 is
the planned date for the next discussion of the issue of same sex
marriage.
7. Proposed Minute on Same Sex Marriage. Friends considered the
proposed
minute on same sex marriage offered by Betty and Paul Wagner. Paul
Wagner read
the statement and proposed minute offered by him and Betty. The clerk
clarified
that the business meeting is to begin the discussion process of the
minute by
entering into silence. Friends expressed concerns about the right
ordering in
the discussion of the proposed minute and its relationship to the
ongoing
discussion of the subject of same sex marriage. Discussion among Friends
was
careful, loving and respectful. While not able to offer a statement of
unity at
this time, Friends agreed to commend the spirit of these discussions to
the
September 29 open discussion convened by the ad hoc committee on
sexuality.
Friends acknowledge the urgency of the issue of same sex marriage and
are
committed to the process of coming to unity.
8. OVYM Report. Susan Hyde reported on two Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting
items
requiring action by the business meeting.
* Discipline Revision Committee
Yellow Springs Friends Meeting has missed input on the sections
regarding the
Environment and Sustainability and also on Close Relationships.
Friends were
reminded that our input is valued for the Discipline Revision
process.
* Response is needed by the time of the Joint Quarterly Meeting on
October 19,
2002 to the
issue of hiring administrative support for the Yearly Meeting
Clerk.
Yellow Springs
Friends will consider this matter at the October meeting for
business.
The balance of Susan's report on the Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting 2002
session
will be continued at the October 6, 2002 Meeting for Business.
The meeting concluded in silent worship.
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