DECEMBER QUERIES DECEMBER 2020 How do our social and economic choices help or harm our vulnerable neighbors? The Multnomah Friends Meeting Do we consider whether the seeds of war and the displacement of peoples Monthly have nourishment in our lifestyles and possessions? Newsletter How does the Spirit guide us in our relationship to money? 4312 SE STARK STREET, PORTLAND, OREGON 97215 (503) 232-2822 WWW.MULTNOMAHFRIENDS.ORG FRIENDLY FACES: Sisters Alegría and Confianza of Las Amigas Del Señor Monastery “People will lie to their doctor about three things: smoking, drinking, and sex,” said Sister Alegría of the two-person Las Amigas del Señor Methodist-Quaker Monastery in Limón, Colón, Honduras. Sister Alegría is an MD herself, and she shared this wry comment during a post- Meeting Zoom discussion on November 8, when MFM celebrated the renewal of our ties with Las Amigas del Señor at the 10:00 Meeting for Worship. Sister Alegría was referring to gaining the trust of the women who come to see her at the pub- lic health clinic where she is a physician and Sister Confianza takes care of the pharmacy. Health education is as important as treating the patients’ illnesses, she explained and providing birth con- Sisters Confianza trol is part of the education for the women in the community. She added that the Catholic priest and Alegría “looks the other way,” pretending not to be aware of the birth control their clinic provides. Covenant for Caring Between MFM & Las Amigas del Señor Celebrated at Meeting for Worship on Sunday, November 8 December Newsletter Contents Earlier that morning, near the end of the 10:00 Meeting for Wor- 1 December Queries ship, Ron Marson and Sisters Alegría and Confianza read aloud in turn our shared covenants, which were made in 2009. The Sisters 1 Friendly Faces: Sisters Alegría & Confianza 2 How Beautiful is the Green Earth then sang for us the song, “How Beautiful is the Green Earth.” (The (Lyrics to the Sisters’ Song) song lyrics and an article by Ron Marson with a message from the 2 A Mayan Health Tip, by Sister Alegría Sisters can be found on the next page.) 2 The Sisters’ Message, by Ron Marson Daily Life at Las Amigas del Señor 3 December Virtual Meeting Events (list) After the Rise of Meeting, about a dozen Friends joined Sisters 3 Letters to the Editor Alegría and Confianza in a breakout room for an hour of animated 4 How to Schedule a Zoom Meeting discussion about their life. 4 How to Host Virtual Meetings “Our daily life,” they recount, “is structured around three prayer/ 4 Zoom Number for People Who Pay worship times that include psalms, scripture readings, silence and for Long Distance songs. We use El Aposento Alto (The Upper Room daily devotional) 4 Virtual Meeting Events each morning. Days include a time of Spiritual Formation (study/ 6 Friendly Readers reflection/prayer), shared readings, and journaling. We sing a lot, in 7 Announcements worship and while working. At night we keep silence. 12 Friend to Friend “Sundays are our day of rest and include Unprogrammed (Quaker 12 Book Review: Marge & Carl Abbott’s silent) Worship, as well as programmed (more typical Protestant) Quakerism, The Basics worship. On Tuesdays we walk and hitch rides the four miles to 13 Report from Nicaragua, by Becca Limón [where we] volunteer at the Centro de Salud (Public Health Mohally Renk Center). During our visits to Limón we also buy groceries, get our 13 Central American Hurricane Relief mail, and use the Internet as time permits. 14 Multnomah DA’s Office Seeks Partners “Physically, our life is that of campesinos, or rural folks. We live in 14 The Social Gospel, by Millie Priebe a rustic one-room house on a small plot of steep land.… We use a 15 How Do Quakers Celebrate Christmas? dry-compost toilet. We cut and haul firewood, scrub our laundry by 15 A Few Favorite Aspects of Quaker Faith hand (in the creek during drier months), and raise pineapples, chick- and Practice ens, and a few other things in an agroforestry setting. We grind 16 Photos: Halloween Parade corn for tortillas and cook on a fogón, a clay wood-fired stove. 17 December Calendar (continued on next page) Euclid Bautista, Clerk of Multnomah Friends Meeting, can be reached at [email protected]. Euclid is available by appointment during the week and at the rise of meeting on Sundays. Please send items for the Newsletter to Susan Jones, editor, [email protected]. Contact Communications Committee Clerk, [email protected], with concerns about Newsletter content. Visit us at our website, www.multnomahfriends.org, and on Facebook, facebook.com/MultnomahFriendsMeeting. FRIENDLY FACES: Sisters Alegría and Confianza A MAYAN HEALTH TIP (continued from page 1) by Sister Alegría, Amigas del Señor Monastery “As a contemplative monastery, we are fairly tradi- If you have an illness or injury that doesn't heal up or re- tional: we live in voluntary material poverty, celibacy, solve in the normal period of time, it is clear you have been and mutual obedience. However, we are non-hierarchical cursed. Why would someone curse you? and are governed using Quaker process, discerning God's Envy. direction together in worshipful silence and sharing.” So the health tip is to live in such a way that no one envies During the pandemic they share a “bubble” in isolation. you. We know a guy with a degenerative muscle disease who Neither has COVID, but Sister Alegría has a heart problem. is certain that the cause is that he was cursed. He had been young, healthy, wealthy, carried a gun, and was quite the womanizer. So he got cursed – no need for further diagnosis. I received this teaching about 25 years ago. I let it season for a long time. People in the US told me that they envied my life. Something to think about. When Sister Confianza and I founded Amigas del Señor Monastery in 2006, we were de- termined to have the ministry of accompaniment. We were not going to be an aid organization. We did not want to be Ugly Americans. We have seen missionaries who take their turn being Ugly Americans, often with the best of intentions. But we are Protestants (both from the United Methodist background). Since 1995 I have also been a Quaker, an attender at Multnomah Friends Meeting. So, as Protestants, Las Amigas del Señor Monastery we cannot have prayer as our only service. We must also do During the Zoom breakout time, Sisters Alegría and direct help. We were determined to support Honduran organ- Confianza gave us a brief tour of their tropical green izations, that is, founded and run by Hondurans. We were not grounds (see photo above). They showed us the garden going to start our own clinic, orphanage, etc. We volunteered where they grow much of their food and the small solar once a week at the local public health center. When we panels that provide the electricity that charges the smart- caught a lift, we rode in the bed of the pick-up with our phone – a recent acquisition – connecting them to Zoom patients. and our Meeting for Worship. And, since that conver- We live at the level of Honduran poverty. The learning sation they’ve written that they bought a keyboard that curve was prodigiously steep. connects to the smartphone by Bluetooth, so writing In the Light, emails and articles – such as “A Mayan Health Tip” at the Sister Alegría right – should be much easier now. Funds Needed to Extend Electricity to the Clinic The Sisters’ Message There is an urgent need to extend electricity to the health by Ron Marson clinic. Multnomah Meeting will undertake to raise funds to help with the project. In “The Sisters’ Message” at the Sisters Alegría and Confianza of Las Amigas del Señor right, continued on page 3, Ron Marson explains how Monastery renewed their ties with MFM in a Zoom Meeting individuals can donate – either online or by check. for Worship between Hurricanes Eta and Iota on November 8. Although the Sisters’ Internet access is erratic, you may The Sisters submitted the following Message which they email them at [email protected]. You may wish to share with us now as part of the reaffirmation of our also visit their website, amigasdelsenor.weebly.com, or Covenant of Caring: their Facebook page, facebook.com/amigashonduras, It is important for us to remember during these and view their hundreds – yes, hundreds! – of photos on polarized times, amidst all our activism and work to flickr.com/photos/amigasdelsenor. implement social justice and save the environment, that we are called to love EVERYONE. The oppressed and the oppressors. Those who HOW BEAUTIFUL IS THE GREEN EARTH need food and shelter and those who have more (Sisters Alegría and Confianza’s Song) than enough. Those on "our side," and also our "enemies." Those who care for us and those who How beautiful is the green earth, would do us harm. The powerful and the power- the stars in the heavens above. less. Democrats and Republicans. Let us sink into But what would the whole world be worth the ever-present Light and Love of the good Spirit If we did not fill it with love – with love! that is all around us. Let us be filled to overflowing If we did not fill it with love. with all the blessings of the universe. Let us have Que bellos los astros allá, courage to cross the lines of division and start con- la tierra en su verdor. versations that could be difficult.