by WebPost | Sep 4, 2005 | Archive, Queries, Testimonies, Writings - RFM
Below is a minute from York (PA) Meeting. They wish to disseminate it to Friends everywhere.
At Meeting for Worship with a Concern for Business on 9th month 4th day 2005, the following minute was approved be sent to Friends everywhere:
Friends (Quakers) have included in their testimonies, “speaking truth to power” and “we are all equal in the eyes of God.” We at York Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends are appalled and angry at the present administration and Congress for allowing this horrible tragedy to occur from Hurricane Katrina.
There is no reason why thousands had to die and more will die. The scope of this disaster could have been lessened had the administration not disregarded the many published scientific studies forewarning such an event. It is inexcusable that President Bush designated a political appointee, Michael Brown, who has no qualifications or experience for the position, as director of FEMA. There is no justification for criticizing the Louisiana National Guard for not doing enough when one-third of the guard was in Iraq, fighting in a war perpetrated with untruths. Some of the billions being spent on that war could have been used to prevent this hurricane holocaust from happening.
We criticized the Russians for inept government personnel in dealing with the Chernobyl Nuclear Reactor disaster. President Bush, you, your appointees and the Leaders in Congress have mimicked the Soviets in the way this horrible occurrence has been dealt with. Who is being inept now?
The various departments of the Government are equally responsible for ignoring the warnings that this disaster would happen. Our legislators awarded money to their pet projects and looked after the welfare of a select few instead of doing what was really needed for the welfare of all the people of our great nation to prevent this horror from happening. We are only beginning to experience the economic, public health, and social ramifications of this event.
The world can not comprehend how we would let so many African Americans die when those who are affluent had transportation to safety As the wealthiest and most powerful country in the world, there is no reason why we cannot take care of our own citizens.
Our constitution promises…”Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. Are these values not valid to those who were not helped by our complacent leaders? We pray that those survivors who have lost loved ones and those whose livelihoods have been destroyed will somehow be helped to regain that happiness. But one of the first goals of this Congressional session is the repeal of the estate tax, another example of looking after the welfare of a select few while ignoring the welfare of all. We the people who have opened our hearts and pocketbooks to fill the void left by the government cannot let such a vote go unnoticed and unprotested!
York Friends (Quaker) Monthly Meeting.
York, PA
Leada Dietz, Clerk
by WebPost | May 16, 2005 | Archive, Writings - RFM
Queries: “Do you make your home a place of affection where God’s presence is felt? Do you practice family prayer? Do you share your deepest beliefs and interests with all in the family? Do you grow together through sharing prosperity and adversity? Can you keep a sense of humor and avoid taking yourself too seriously? Do you establish family standards including the mutual obligations of children and adults?”
I suppose that families and homes are always in some transition but I have to consider this batch of queries in a past as well as present tense perspective. We are an immediate family of three (not counting dogs), with a grown son who is—except for an extended visit at the present moment—living on his own. My wife and I have begun our 30th year of marriage and our son is in his 26th year. He has spent the last couple years since graduating college living and working in Colorado.
Despite this recent separation of distance, we have been a close family. In fact, it seems to me that redefining ourselves as closely knit adults, rather than parents with a grown kid, is the major theme of this period of life. Continuing to grow as individuals and shaking off the patterns of an earlier life stage is essential to prevent families from becoming stagnant and parading through a series of stifling rituals. I certainly don’t know what happens in other families but for us it clearly is necessary to evolve in the roles we play in this ongoing three-some.
Our closeness is generally more understood than expressed in words. We tend to show our love for one another through actions more often than speech. It seems that to varying degrees, we each believe that it is easier to talk about love but committing one’s time, attention, energy – giving of one’s self—is what love really is. Actions speak louder than words. Not that we don’t use the words, too; we just don’t let them take the place of real expression.
Being Randee’s partner and Corey’s father has been the most important work (and greatest joy) in my life. I feel mostly fortunate, looking back. I’m quite clear that I’ve known all along that being her husband and his dad were my priorities. They have been and continue to be the essential meaning, beauty, and purpose in my life. I can’t say that it was one long episode of “Father Knows Best” but thank heavens I’ve been clear about what was most important to me.
I’m not comfortable talking about God – that’s probably why I’m drawn to Quakerism. We can be still and know … or wonder or imagine or question, even doubt. I reject the idea that I could make God’s presence felt in my home life. I don’t think I can make God do anything. Perhaps though, if we are wise enough, we can recognize the true source of our love for one another.
by WebPost | Mar 16, 2005 | Archive, Writings - RFM
THE MEETING COMMUNITY
BYM FAITH AND PRACTICE
THIRD MONTH QUERY
by Bob Alexander
“Are love and harmony within the Meeting community fostered by a spirit of open sharing? Do you endeavor to widen your circle of friendships within the Meeting, seeking to know persons of all ages and at all stages of the spiritual journey? Does the Meeting provide for the spiritual refreshment of all members and attenders? Do Friends provide spiritual and practical care for the elderly, the lonely, and others with special needs?”
My personal experience of the RFM community began in 1982, when a Friend (friend) who knew I was struggling in my spiritual journey brought me to Meeting. I felt immediately at home with the silent, unprogrammed worship. Through the years, this community has become a vital part of my life
What makes us a community? First of all, it is a commitment by many of us to seek the Truth by participating in all aspects of the life of the community, to persevere through the hard times, and to rejoice in the good times, and to do the work that is needed to sustain us. We have no paid staff, no bureaucratic hierarchy (is that redundant?), no one to tell us what to do or how to do it. We are all in this together and each of us is responsible to do our part.
What keeps us coming back to worship, to meeting for business, to committee meetings, workdays, threshing sessions and all that we do together? For me, it is being part of a group of like-minded people who are willing to take the risk of worshipping and doing business in a way that is so radically different from the rest of our culture. We don’t take the way of strict creeds and dogma and majority rule. Instead, we seek the Truth through experience, experiment, continuing revelation and a “sense of the Meeting.” As is stated in BYM Faith and Practice, “We have a profound, often tested, durable respect for each individual’s affirmation of his own religious experience, which must be judged not only by his words, but also by his life. From the stimulus of dissimilarity, new insights often arise. Each Friend must, as always, work out for himself his own understanding of religion; and each Monthly Meeting must, as always, fit its practice to its own situation and the needs of its members.” However, it is also stated there that, “The Society of Friends arose out of personal experience of God as revealed through Jesus Christ. The conviction that God can and does speak to all human conditions – enabling, directing and working through us – is at the center of Quaker faith and practice.”
Are these two statements contradictory? While we in Meeting don’t usually discuss our religious beliefs, I know that our members and attenders include atheists, non-theists, agnostics, animists, naturalists, secular humanists, Zen Buddhists as well as Christians. I believe that what makes us a community even with all these differences, is our silent worship, seeking a sense of the Meeting in our business, and having our lives speak through the Quaker testimonies. Beyond all these differences there is something in the Meeting fellowship that touches us deeply.
“Are love and harmony within the Meeting community fostered by a spirit of open sharing?”
An expansion of this query could be, “Do we seek to consider openly matters at issue, seeking a loving resolution of conflict, rather than to preserve a semblance of community by ignoring issues?” (BYM F&P)
Tough questions. We have stumbled at times. We have at times avoided conflict and openness to preserve a façade of harmony. We are not perfect, but it is the imperfection and the struggle to live up to our ideals, and to forgive and love each other that makes an authentic community.
When I sit during worship and look around the room, I say to myself, “these are my people,” Each person is dear and unique to me, even the annoying ones. We are here to share our gifts with each other. And so I sit and rejoice in our community and our willingness to be part of the silence and to travel together on this journey.
“Do I endeavor to widen my circle of friendships within the Meeting seeking to know persons of all ages and at all stages of the spiritual journey?”
I only have the energy to know a few people on a deep basis. Being an introvert (is this an excuse?), I don’t make a great effort to widen my circle of friends and tend to gravitate to those I already know. However, my experience on committees and Friendly Eights over the years has given me the opportunity to know a great many people in Meeting on more than a superficial basis. While I may not see many of these Friends in any other areas of my life, our times together in Meeting related activities foster a kind of sharing and intimacy that I find rare in the wider world. I think what I enjoy most about Friends is that we don’t take ourselves too seriously and we can have many good laughs about our foibles.
I have trouble with the second part of the query about “stages of the spiritual journey.” This sounds too hierarchical to me and infers that the more “spiritually evolved” among us should condescend to make contact with those poor souls who are still in spiritual elementary school. Sometimes my four year old granddaughter seems way beyond me spiritually. We must beware of spiritual arrogance. There are no Standards of Learning to determine how spiritually advanced we are. I would like to rephrase the query as follows: “Do I endeavor to widen my circle of friendships within the Meeting, seeking to know persons of all ages, realizing that I have something to learn from each person?”
However, there are those among us who, through wisdom gained from life and Quaker experience can be teachers and mentors to others. Thomas Kelly, in his book A Testament of Devotion, writes, “Not all members share equally in spiritual discernment, but upon some falls more clearly the revealing light of His guiding will (I would rather say ‘the revealing light of the spirit’). ‘Weighty Friends’ with delicate attunement both to heaven and to earth, bulk large in practical decisions.”
“Does the Meeting provide for the spiritual refreshment of all members and attenders?”
For me, spiritual refreshment is the sense of renewal received through the fellowship of silent worship and shared activities. It is the joy I feel when we come together in committees and, through listening deeply to each other, realize how connected we all are. Our committees work hard to provide opportunities for everyone to be fully engaged in the life of the Meeting and to experience this sense of refreshment, renewal and connectedness.
It may be difficult at times to discern the healthy relationship between product and process, being and doing, and each of us has to strike the right balance for our own circumstances. I find that Meeting folks are very respectful of people’s needs to disengage at times, and no guilt trip is laid on anyone who needs a break. Those of us who can’t say “no”, quickly learn (I hope) that being exhausted with Meeting responsibilities does us and Meeting no good.
We do need individually and corporately to periodically ask ourselves who we are and what we are about, and if all our activities spring from and are centered on the “inward immediate experience of the Inner Light.” (BYM F&P) This is done annually on a corporate basis when Ministry and Worship Committee invites members and attenders to give input into the State of the Meeting report.
“Do Friends provide spiritual and practical care for the elderly, the lonely and others with special needs?”
We have recently had an entire generation of older members leave us, either through death or going to (mostly) distant retirement communities. I saw and was part of the Meeting community pulling together to help provide spiritual and practical care for these Friends who had been such a vital part of the Meeting. As many of them became frail and /or ill, we arranged for meals, provided worship at their homes and coordinated their health care if their families were distant. I am now, at age 68, a member of the senior generation at Meeting and will have the advantage, should I need it, of a fully accessible building, and when it is my turn to need special care, I know Friends will be there for me.
by WebPost | Dec 21, 2004 | Archive, Building and Grounds, Business Meeting, History - RFM, Kensington, Meeting House, Minuted Decisions
RICHMOND FRIENDS MEETING
Building Committee Request
Approved by the
Financial Stewardship Committee
To be recommended to Meeting for Business
on December 19, 2004
The Building Committee, requests that Financial Stewardship consider and recommend to the next Meeting for Business on December 19, 2004, a $43,000 increase in the construction budget for the Religious Education Building. This increase will be used to solve two major problems that have been encountered during the early stages of construction. If approved, the overall budget for the expansion and renovation of the RE Building would increase from $590,000 to $633,000.
The first problem is the need to replace the first floor of the Religious Education Building. When holes were dug to tie the foundation of the addition to the existing building, the builders discovered that our existing floor consists of only one inch of a mortar-like material over one inch of gravel. (Apparently they were cutting corners in 1937). This floor should be removed and replaced with four inches of gravel and four inches of concrete. The cost for removal and replacement is approximately $30,000. Labor costs are high for this change order because it is not feasible to bring large power equipment into the building to dig up the old floor. A new floor will solve many of the moisture problems we have experienced over the years–a problem we would have had to address with or without this renovation.
The second problem concerns the elevation of the outdoor meditation area and the need to prevent flooding in the stairwell of the new side door of the multipurpose room. The builder and architect tell us the elevation of the meditation patio needs to be raised by ten inches to ensure that water drains away from the building. An additional step will have to be added to the stairwell. A new retaining wall will be constructed along with a concrete swale to drain water out to Kensington Avenue. In addition, the existing ramp for persons with disabilities will receive a new foundation. The total cost of these changes totals $13,000. (Note: we do wonder why these elevation and drainage issues were not identified prior to construction. We will address this with the architect in our next meeting.)
When we began the construction phase of this project, we had a contingency fund of $30,000 to pay for unexpected expenses. As one can see, the two problems discussed above clearly exceed this amount. In addition, there are other expenses we have incurred or expect that will be paid from the contingency fund. For example, we had to employ an independent, engineering firm to test the steel and concrete at critical stages of construction, and we have asbestos in our window glazing, floor tiles, and glue that must be removed by a specialized company. The good news is that there is no asbestos in our ceiling tiles and glue.
There is some urgency in our deciding how best to handle this situation. If we choose not to increase our budget, we will have to delete something from our current design. The only line items the Building Committee could identify were the replacement windows on the second floor of the RE Building, the new insulation for the north wall, and the drywall over that insulation. Cost savings by eliminating these items would be about $22,000. If we choose this path, we need to inform Century Construction this coming week so they will not order the replacement windows for the second floor. The downside of this choice would be our missing the opportunity to achieve new energy savings. If we replace these windows at a later time, the costs will be more, and we would have to move out of the RE Building a second time. We do not recommend this course of action.
It should be noted that the Building Committee is asking for permission to spend an additional $43,000 only if absolutely necessary. The estimates for the proposed work were made on the high side, and thus, we are hopeful that the actual costs will be less. We are looking for some cost savings during construction in the electrical area where we may have more in the budget than actually required. There also may be more money in the budget for furnishings than needed. Another possibility to reduce the amount we have to borrow is to ask Building and Grounds to spend some of our major maintenance funds to pay for part of the new floor.
Below are the construction and contingency budgets and along with the charges to the contingency budget to date plus anticipated charges.
Construction Budget $440,503
Contingency Budget $30,000
Anticipated charges to contingency other than the floor ($30,000) and meditation area drainage problem ($13,000)
Engineering inspections and tests $6,000
Hardware for one-hour fire doors 8,000
Undercut for foundation tie-in 1,500
Asbestos removal (floor tiles, window caulk) 5,000
Total to date $20,000
In summary, if this request is approved, we are authorized to spend up to $43,000 to replace the first floor in the RE Building and make the changes in the meditation area to prevent flooding. This increase will allow us to proceed with our plans to install replacement windows, new insulation, and drywall on the second floor of the RE Building. We will be able to meet the contingencies we have already encountered and still have $10,000 remaining in our contingency fund. The Building Committee recommends the approval of this request in a timely manner to avoid delays in the construction schedule and increased costs.
Submitted to Financial Stewardship on December 12, 2004, on behalf of the Building Committee by Howard Garner, Clerk of the Construction Subcommittee.
