Do you encourage and support the educational activities of Friends? Are you interested in the schools of your community and concerned to establish practices in these consistent with the values you cherish as Friends? What efforts are you making to increase your understanding of your Quaker and other religious heritages and their relation to other religions?
Satya Stark-Benjar is participating once again in the presidential election year effort by college students and other young people to make a difference by working for progressive efforts for a ten week program. Participants are matched with progressive city resident hosts in swing states. To find out more and to donate online go to www.swingsemester.org . You may also mail a check to “Swing Semester” at 1133 19th Street, NW, 9th Floor, Washington, DC 20036. Satya asks us to consider sending our stimulus rebate checks to support this historic political immersion program initiated by young people.
Clear Creek Friends Meeting now has its own website and domain name.
Check it out at: www.clearcreekfriends.org
Feedback is encouraged, and can be sent to webmaster AT clearcreekfriends DOT org.
The following was brought to Meeting for Business by Ministry and Oversight (M&O). It grew out of concerns brought to M&O and discussions in M&O about those concerns. It was brought to Monthly Meeting for Business asking for it to be considered as a recommendation, and requesting feedback and direction. It will be considered again at August Monthly Meeting for Business, to determine if we feel we have the desire, energy, and commitment to move forward. Friends are asked to forward any thoughts about this to M&O prior to next Monthly Meeting for Business.
There have been concerns raised about the ebb and flow of attenders, the lack of welcome that new attenders sometimes feel, and the lack of children and young families. New and younger attenders bring energy, but it takes work to foster them. Clear Creek members sometimes feel overwhelmed by the needs of the many occasional attenders, and that can make it hard to be welcoming.
Without being welcoming, we are unlikely to see our numbers grow. We have often had the attitude that people will find us, and if we are right for them, they will stay. However, we have seen many just drift away. We have not been able to meet their spiritual needs.
M&O raised the question: what would it take to increase our numbers?
Many ideas came forth. We may have an opportunity to change meeting time and have use of the meetinghouse for longer on Firstday if College Meeting changes its time (a current possibility). That would open the possibility for meals after meeting, and the possibility of speakers that draw a wider audience.
What would happen if we approached this with intentionality as a meeting? Without expecting the burden to fall on a few members or committees, but if the meeting as a whole decided to try to grow? If we took a semester, or a school year, and made a commitment to try to grow? If we invited new faculty to meeting (as West Richmond does), if we invited friends and acquaintances to come to meeting with us (as many churches do)?
We bring this as a recommendation for consideration and as a request for input and commitment from the meeting.
On their recent trip to Iran, Sam & Ruth Neff stayed with Seyyed Hoseinni, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcast University (IRIBU). The Neffs are encouraging Americans to consider participating in two scholarly meetings, listed below, to be held at IRIBU this November. There is NO fee for registration or accommodations; participants need only pay travel costs.
1. The Second International Conference on Religion and the Media, November 9-12, 2008, Tehran & Qom, Iran. Steve Angell of ESR has had a paper accepted for this conference.
2. The First Students Workshop on Peace, Religion and Media, November 9-22, 2008, Tehran, Qom and Caspian Sea Beach, Iran
For more information visit the web sites: www.religion-media.com and www.religion-media.com/workshop.htm. Or contact Sam and Ruth Neff (samn AT earlham DOT edu).
The Pax Program is seeking host families for academic exchange students in Richmond, IN for the coming school year. Host families provide a bed, a place to study and a place at the family table, and can be of any size and age range. (Retirees often work especially well.) Within the next weeks there are several youngsters who need at least a temporary “welcome” family assigned to them, pending a more permanent placement. These students come with at least 3 years of English, and are highly motivated to learn about life in the U.S. and share their own cultures with us. Most will be in the U.S. for a full school year although a few are one-semester students. The most urgent needs are:
1. Duke from Thailand, who is a straight ‘A’ student, plays the piano and loves tennis and golf.
2. Miriam from Germany, who is a lively musical girl who plays several instruments and comes from an artistic family. (She has allergies to cat hair, which has been a hurdle for us.)
3. Ricardo from Spain, who loves soccer, but also reads science fiction and hopes for a family with warm hearts.
4. Hyun Joon, a boy from South Korea with passions for chess and soccer.
These students come with health insurance, and money for their own incidental expenses. Please contact Palline Plum 765-598-4902 or the Pax agency office at 800-555-6211.
On June 12th representatives from 18 local Richmond churches met at the Townsend center to discuss the possibility of creating a Central Referral Office for faith-based community services. Wayne Copenhaver and Les Williams of First Friends Meeting are the principal organizers of this initiative. A major issue which the Collaborative wishes to address is the duplication of services provided by different faith-based community members. For example there are 17 food providers in the Richmond community, each of which currently maintains its own data base of needy families. One centrally located data base might free up resources for additional food for the hungry.
Clear Creek was invited to attend a meeting of the collaborative on July 15th and was represented by four Friends. A Development Committee was formed to create the coalition’s infrastructure. Subcommittees were listed and people were encouraged to signup for one or more subcommittees. The subcommittees are listed below. If you are interested in participating in the coalition or would like additional information, please contact Wayne Copenhaver (firstfm AT comcast DOT net), Les Williams (les DOT williams AT comcast DOT net) or Jim Sizelove (jim DOT size AT comcast DOT net). The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, August 19 at 6:30 p.m. The meeting place is yet to be determined.
The meeting opened with a period of silent worship. Seventeen Friends were present. The clerk read the Queries for the seventh month and Friends reflected on our responsibility as members to nurture the life of the Meeting.
The treasurer reported that contributions were slightly above expenses, and that the OVYM assessment contributions are now complete for this year.
The Ministry and Oversight committee reported that they have developed a set of guidelines for what should be put out on the Wymondham room table. After some discussion, the guidelines were approved as written. They also presented a recommendation that the Meeting make an intentional commitment to extend our outreach to new members. The discussion of this included the following thoughts; the need to outreach to students, that we not focus just on numbers but rather on strengthening the spiritual life of the Meeting, that we don’t lose or ignore the strengths we already have, that small groups are a good way to make new people feel at home, that students also bring many gifts to the Meeting, and the question whether this would be a good topic for a fall retreat? This will be held over for further consideration next month.
The Children’s religious education committee reported that they have ordered a bunch of materials but has not settled on a curriculum for next year. Input is welcome. Volunteers will also be needed to work with the children this year. One Friend will be going to the FCG Religious Educators institute at Bradford Woods in August.
Two Friends who attended the FGC gathering reported on it. Susan Stark did a mini-concert. They enjoyed reconnecting with old friends and learning about a wide range of issues through presentations (including water rights and the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s talk to FGC) as well as dancing and other social activities.
Our meeting’s representative to the FCNL reported that this is a year of major changes in government. Please keep in mind important issues when you vote.
The minutes were read and approved.
Meeting closed with a brief period of waiting worship.
Greeters Needed!!
Friends, we need volunteers to act as greeters prior to Meeting on the following Sundays:
Please contact the Hospitality Coordinator (Mary G.) if you can help. Thanks!